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LETTERS 

r 



LETTERS FROM PORTUGAL, 

SPAIN, SICILY, AND 

MALTA, 

IN l8l2, 1813, AND 1814. 

BY G. A. F. H. B. 




LONDON: 
PRIVATELY PRINTED AT THE CHISWICK PRESS. 

1875- 



im4 

.3^ 



205449 
'13 




PREFACE. 




HE following letters were written by the 
Hon. George A. F. H. Bridgeman, after- 
wards Earl of Bradford, during a tour 
on the continent, made in company with Lord John 
Russell and the Hon. Robert H. Clive, in the years 
1812-14. 

It is thought that the notices of events during the 
Peninsular War give them a somewhat wider interest 
than is possessed by ordinary private letters, and a 
few copies have therefore been printed. 



s. 



Weston, 

May, 1875. 




LETTERS. 



^^^^^it^^^^ii 



Oporto, Thursday Evening, 

August 27 thy 1812. 

My Dearest Mother, 

OU will certainly be rather surprised to 
find my first letter after disembarkation 
dated from this place. Never to be sure 
were people so wonderfully fortunate as 
we have been to land here just at this moment. The 
circumstances which determined our present plans are 
these : I told you before I left England, I think, that 
we had heard a report of Lord Wellington's having 
defeated Marmont with immense loss. This story 
was corroborated from time to time on our voyage, 
and from four different vessels we heard that the 
French had lost upwards of 20,000 men, and tjiat 

B 



2 Oporto, August 2'jt/i, 1 812. 

Lord Wellington was at Madrid ; the last vessel which 
gave us this information was an Englishman, which 
we had chased for many leagues on Sunday last, 
thinking it was an American ; from this source we 
thought the report worthy of credit, as corroborating 
the stories we had had from Spanish and Portuguese 
vessels ; and John^ and I determined (if Clive^ should 
come into our wishes) to avail ourselves of the oppor- 
tunity of one of the three or four merchantmen going 
to Oporto to carry us there, and if we found the news 
as good as we expected, to proceed in a short time 
to Madrid. On Monday morning, the 24th, we ac- 
cordingly spoke the "Buzzard," and found Clive quite 
of our mind ; our next object was to communicate 
with Sir Robert Kennedy, Commissary-General of 
our army, who was going out to Lisbon with his wife, 
having been for a short time in England for his health, 
we thought he might perhaps be inclined to be of our 
party. Oporto being the nearest road to the army; 
but before I proceed farther I am bound in common 
gratitude to express how much we were indebted to 



* Lord John Russell, now Earl Russell, K.G. 
^ The Honourable Robert Henry Clive. 



oporto, August 2ytky 1812. 3 

Captain Maitland for his great kindness to us on this, 
as on all other occasions. He had made us most com- 
fortable throughout the voyage, and was indefatigable 
in forwarding our new schemes ; it would be impossible 
to say too much in praise of his kindness and good 
nature. Sir Robert Kennedy seemed to think that 
he had better go on to Lisbon, as was his original 
intention, but he thought the news bore great marks 
of truth, and encouraged our plans ; moreover, he was 
good enough (although he knew nothing of any of us) 
to give us a letter to Mr. McKenzie, Assistant-Com- 
missary-General at Oporto, begging him to do all in 
his power to forward us. It was now mid-day, and 
we were abreast of the mouth of the Minho (which 
divides Portugal and Spain), with a fine breeze from 
the N.N.E. ; the ships bound for Oporto were three 
brigs and a schooner ; we found, on looking out for 
them, that the brigs had left the convoy in the morn- 
ing without leave of the commodore, this was a blow ; 
however, fortunately the schooner remained, and on 
hailing her, the master was very civil, said his accom- 
modations were very bad, but that he would willingly 
take us. He was very anxious to part company ; we 
therefore got a little cold meat as quick as possible, 



4 Oporto, August 2 7///, 1 8 1 2. 

and having sorted our baggage, and left all the things 
we thought we could do without on board the " Pique " 
(which things, together with Clive's in the "Buzzard," 
Captain Maitland promised to deposit safely at Com- 
missioner Eraser's at Gibraltar), we proceeded on 
board the "Alert" schooner with the remainder, and at 
three o'clock p.m. made sail straight for Oporto, leav- 
ing the convoy to our right. We found on board the 
schooner a tidy little cabin just big enough to creep 
into, and two berths in it ; we opened our cantines in 
the evening, and with the help of some brown sugar 
and biscuit of the master's, and our own tea, we made 
a supper and a breakfast with much satisfaction. As 
usual, nothing would tempt Clive to take one of the 
beds, and he laid himself down on the seat in his 
cloak. John went regularly to bed, and I laid down 
on the other for a few hours, finding it much too hot 
to follow John's example^ We had beautiful weather, 
and our breeze kept up till after midnight, when it 
became nearly calm for the rest of our voyage, and a 
very thick fog came on; before daylight we were 
waked by a boat full of Portuguese pilots, who came 
on board and made the greatest noise I ever heard, 
seeming to be in the greatest passion, but, I believe, 



oporto, August 2yth, 1812. 5 

not being so at all, they only wanted us to give them 
some rum ; all went away in about a quarter of an 
hour, excepting one. Clive and I ran on deck to see 
the squabble. The fog was so thick we could not see 
anything of the coast ; the pilot was a great treat, 
and could not understand or be understood except a 
little by John and Clive ; but I must not enter too 
much into particulars, or I shall never have done. 
After breakfast the fog cleared away a little, and we 
saw the shore, which was very pretty, and the low 
mountains which backed it were beautifully shaped. 
The first town we saw was Villa de Conde, three 
leagues north of Oporto. The only very striking 
thing was a very large convent of nuns towards the 
sea, but the view was yet very indistinct from the fog ; 
at eleven we came opposite Oporto Bar, the day was 
then beautiful, and the view of the mouth of the 
Douro very striking and pretty. We fancied we were 
arrived, but, to our disappointment, we found we 
must wait for a visit from the master pilot, and 
that the water would not be high enough to cross 
the Bar till two o'clock. After wasting a long 
time, the master pilot arrived, and told us we could 
not land till the following morning ; however, by 



6 Oporto, August 27M, 181 2. 

bribing the wretch with four dollars, and giving him 
to understand we were people of consequence, in a 
hurry to join the army, he soon changed his note, and 
took us, our servants, and luggage, in his boat to 
Gporto, a league above the Bar — we of course paid 
well for this, but we gained our point. The river up 
to Oporto is quite beautiful, but of this you have 
heard. We came to an inn kept by an Englishman, 
who has been here twenty-five years, and we have got 
good rooms. This inn would not quite please you, 
but it is a palace for this country. We got a good 
dinner, and in the evening went with our letters to 
Mr. McKenzie. We found him at supper with several 
officers ; he was very civil, and told us that the news 
we had heard was true, but recommended our staying 
a short time to hear more before we proceeded to 
Madrid. This was exactly what we liked. He said 
he was going the next morning before day to La- 
mego by land, and would return down the Douro in 
boats ; he was going on duty, and if he could get us 
mules in time, would be glad of our company. He 
immediately sent to the corregidor for mules ; we 
stayed late, but no answer, we went home between 
eleven and twelve o'clock, and he promised to send 



oporto, A ugust 2 ythy 1 8 1 2 . 7 

the mules if they came in time. Late the next morn- 
ing an under-commissary came to say they could not 
get them, Mr. McKenzie was gone and would return 
in four days, and he recommended our taking a tour 
into the north in the meantime. We next determined 
to visit General Trant, governor of Oporto. He lives 
at present at St Juan, a league off, at the river's 
mouth. We walked there, our host for our guide, and 
on sending up our names nothing could exceed the 
civility, the kindness of General Trant ; he gave us 
the whole account of the state of military affairs, and 
pointed out the places on the map. Good God ! how 
glorious is the news. He told us that the French had 
lost 20,000 men ; that Marmont and Bonnet were 
desperately wounded and believed to be dead ; that 
Lord Wellington had entered Madrid on the 12th, 
leaving two divisions near Valladolid to watch the 
wreck of the French army, which had retreated towards 
the Ebro, 10,000 strong, but so completely cut up, 
as to be considered hors de combat ; that Joseph ^ had 
advanced, previous to this great battle, to join Mar- 
mont with 14,000 men, but that he had only reached 

^ Joseph Bonaparte, King of Spain. 



8 Oporto, A7ig2ist ijtk, 1812. 

Alba de Tormes when he heard of Marmont's defeat ; 
that he had retreated precipitately to Madrid, and 
thence, after leaving 17,000 men in the fortress of 
Buen Retiro, all picked Frenchmen, he had continued 
his retreat to join Suchet at Valencia ; that he had 
himself very narrowly escaped, our advanced dragoons 
having taken some of his own guard. The Buen 
Retiro is an excessively strong place, and was ex- 
pected to hold out a long time, and to have cost us a 
great many lives ; however. Lord Wellington contrived 
to take it by surprise on the 14th, two days after 
entering Madrid. He found an immense quantity 
of ordnance, stores, arms, &c. What makes all this 
so very glorious and satisfactory is, that Lord Wel- 
lington was certainly in full retreat, thinking that the 
enemy would be too strong for him, but suddenly 
seeing the French in some confusion, he ordered an 
attack just before Salamanca ; the French right en- 
deavoured to turn our left, we refused it, and made a 
most vigorous attack with our right on their left, and 
totally destroyed that and their centre. They were 
thunderstruck, and retreated in the utmost confusion, 
followed by our victorious army, who continued to 
take prisoners for many days. Our left wing was not 



10 



oporto, August 2ytk, 1812. 9 

engaged. Thus by the success of a quarter of an hour 
(which decided the victory) has half Spain been freed 
from those accursed tyrants of the world. The sort of 
enthusiasm which prevails now, both in Spain and 
Portugal, is not to be conceived — Lord Wellington is 
considered almost a god. They wrote that at Madrid 
he can hardly pass through the streets from the crowds 
of men, women, and children who follow him, staring 
and loading him with vivas. It is singular that ac- 
counts state Soult to have been still before Cadiz on 
the 14th, although he must have known of our victory. 
The longer he remains there the better, as he must 
then be cut off. It is imagined he is staying there 
purposely, wishing to come over to the Spanish cause. 
Probably, my dearest mother, you will have heard 
everything long ago, but it is possible I may have 
mentioned something you have not heard. Give my 
duty to my grandfather,^ and tell him I hope he will 
give me credit for obeying him in this respect. General 
Trant is a very pleasing, gentlemanly, sensible man, 
and, I believe, an excellent officer. His account to us 
was the clearest I ever heard ; he likewise showed us 

* George, Fourth Viscount Torrington. 
C 



lo oporto y August lytk, 1812. 

a plan of the battle, which had been sent to him. 
Marmont's army being considered totally destroyed, 
and the two divisions being left at Valladolid to watch 
the remaining stragglers, it is thought that Lord 
Wellington will advance into Catalonia, and join the 
army which has landed at Villa Nova, to the south of 
Barcelona, under General Maitland, and then march 
to Valencia against Joseph and Suchet. If Soult 
breaks up from Andalusia, and endeavours to form a 
junction with Suchet (to which the intermediate Spanish 
armies will oppose great difficulties), Hill will cross 
the Tagus and join Lord Wellington. The Spaniards 
are advancing from Gallicia and Asturias, and when 
they reach Valladolid, will leave our two divisions at 
liberty to join the Grand Army likewise. Oh ! what 
a bright prospect we have before us. To return to 
ourselves, we were at General Trant's yesterday, and 
after giving us these accounts, he offered to assist us 
in any way we liked. He got several tours made out 
for us, and we determined on a plan I will detail pre- 
sently. He asked us to dinner ; we walked down to 
the river, and went thence to Oporto in a boat, and 
having dressed, returned in the same way. We dined 
at half-past four, and there were many officers, British 



oporto^ August 2'/th^\Z\2, ii 

and Portuguese. We had an excellent dinner, wine 
and dessert in the evening. He asked several Portu- 
guese families from San Juan to meet us — there were 
some pretty girls amongst them. The society is 
formal enough among strangers ; some danced a little, 
but we who were just come from England found it 
much too hot to join that party. During dinner (as is 
the Portuguese custom) several people came in, among 
others the prior of a large convent on the south of 
the Douro, opposite the town, most romantically and 
beautifully situated on a rock, with hanging gardens 
and pine woods. This prior is a pleasing young man ; 
he asked the Governor and his staff, and us, to dine 
at the convent on Friday (to-morrow), and we shall 
all go. 

We set out on Saturday next on a tour, previous 
to starting finally for Madrid ; we should have gone 
to-morrow had it not been for the invitation to the 
convent ; we are going to Aveiro, Coimbra, Busaco, 
Vizeu, San Pedro do Sul, Arouca, Lamego, and thence 
down the Douro in a boat to Oporto ; this tour will 
take us about a week, we shall then stay two or three 
days here again, and after that go to Villa de Conde, 
Braga, Chaves, Bragan^a, Zamora, Toro, Valladolid, 



12 Oporto, August 27///, 181 2. 

and thence to Madrid ; but you shall hear more of 
this before we leave Oporto for good. General Trant 
sent us three of his horses, and his town-major to ac- 
company us this morning, and he took us a beautiful 
ride, and afterwards to a convent of nuns in the 
town, we saw none of the nuns, but only two Miss 
Russells, who consider themselves related distantly 
to the Duke of Bedford ; they were delighted to see 
John ; the eldest is very pretty, the second promises 
to be so, but is very young, they are daughters of a 
Portuguese gentleman who married an English Miss 
Russell ; why they are called Russell I know not, 
they say in Portugal people take any name they like 
best ; they have lost their father and mother, their aunt 
is in the Brazils, and their brother in the army, and 
they are put into the convent by the regency, as a 
safe asylum, but are not going to take the veil. Some 
time ago Major Wilde, an English officer, was a few 
days in Oporto, and visited the convent, where he 
saw and conversed with Miss Russell through the 
grate, and the next morning he proposed to her, and 
it is thought they would have been married had not 
Major Wilde been obliged suddenly to quit Oporto 
with the army, and he was killed, poor fellow, after- 
wards, at Badajoz. You would imagine the Miss 



oporto, August 2yth, \Z\2. 13 

Russells spoke English, but they do not know a word 
of anything but Portuguese. 

The English post sets off from hence every Friday 
evening to Lisbon, and I shall take this letter to 
General Trant to-morrow morning, who is so good as 
to send it to Mr. Stuart to forward to England. It 
strikes twelve, my dearest mother, and my eyes draw 
very long straws, my pen is worn out, and my hand 
tired. I hope you will have received my letters 
which I sent from Yarmouth, Lymington, by a Torbay 
boat from off Falmouth, and by the " Hope," from off 
Finisterre, all since we were embarked. General 
Trant asked us to dinner again to-day, but we ex- 
cused ourselves, having so much to write and settle. 
God bless you, my dear mother, give my affectionate 
duty to my father, and love to Henry,^ and all my re- 
lations and friends, you are with 
Your ever affectionate 

And dutiful son, 

G. A. F. H. Bridgeman. 

P.S.— We heard by the "Niobe" that Admiral 

' His brother, the Honourable Henry E. Bridgeman, after- 
wards rector of Blymhill. 



14 Oporto ^ August ijtk, \Z\2, 

Legge was coming home immediately, and Captain 
Cockburn appointed to succeed him. I should 
therefore have missed Charles/ and if Soult leaves 
Cadiz, Orlando 2 would probably follow. I am not, 
therefore, very sorry at not going there first, and I 
have seen what I wished of all things to see — viz., 
the north of Portugal. Clive and John desire to be 
very kindly remembered to you. This evening as John 
Cobb ' was walking in the street, a funeral passed, and 
a man came up to him and offered him a lighted 
torch ; he was much astonished, and hurried away ; on 
his return home he learnt that they only wanted him 
to accompany the funeral. 



' His brother (afterwards Admiral) the Honourable C. O. 
Bridgeman. 

'His brother, the Honourable Orlando Bridgeman, Grenadier 
Guards, and afterwards aide-de-camp to Lord Hill at Waterloo. 

' John Cobb, personal servant to Mr. Bridgeman, afterwards 
a messenger in the House of Commons. 





Oporto, 
Friday, Septetnber iit/i, 1 8 1 2. 

My Dearest Mother, 

E returned last night from a tour which 
has afforded us all much pleasure, and 
has on the whole been most prosperous ; 
we followed the track I mentioned in my 
last written from hence about a fortnight ago, which 
General Trant was so good as to send through Mr. 
Stuart. I hope you have received it safe, as it was a 
long letter. Our only deviation from the above said 
route was, that we went from Busaco to San Pedro do 
Sul by a curious mountain road over the Serra de 
Alcoba, and through that of Cara Mula, instead of 
going by Vizeu, an ugly, uninteresting city ; we saved 
very little in distance, and none in time, but we passed 



1 6 Oporto y September nth, 1812. 

through an interesting and in parts a most beautiful 
country. We saw the whole of our grand position 
at Busaco, where we lodged one night at the Convent 
of Carmelites D^chausses, a small poor-looking build- 
ing situated at the top of the high Serra de Busaco, in 
the midst of a Quinta, which is one entire wood of 
oaks, chestnuts, beautiful Portuguese cypresses, and 
several sorts of evergreens. In this warm climate it 
is only on the high hills or mountain valleys that 
you see oaks or, indeed, anything like fine verdure ; 
the lower hills are only able to grow the pines (of 
which you meet with immense forests) and the Indian 
corn ; indeed, we have seen but few stubbles of our 
corn, even on the high hills, and the harvest was all 
in before we landed. I will say nothing of our journey 
to Coimbra, which was principally through pine woods, 
except that once for a few miles we passed between 
beautiful hedges of myrtle in full blossom. This sight 
struck me wonderfully, and the perfume of them was 
delicious. 

Coimbra is finely situated on a steep declivity of the 
hills which form the north bank of the Mondego, a 
river which is nearly dry in summer, leaving large 
banks of sand and gravel, but in the winter is a large 



oporto, September iiM, 1812. 17 

river. The valley of the Mondego is very fertile. 
The country about Coimbra, where the hills are high 
and finely shaped, would be beautiful were it not that 
the plantations are entirely of olive, which is an ugly 
tree. Opposite to the city are two fine convents, and 
also the Quinta das Lagrimas, or Garden of Tears, 
famous for being the residence of poor Inez de Castro, 
who was there murdered by order of her father-in- 
law, the King of Portugal. This Quinta we visited, 
as also the University, where we saw a fine library, 
church, and museum, and a noble collection of in- 
struments — mathematical, &c. Hence we came to 
Busaco, and thence to San Pedro do Sul, where we 
saw the baths and springs ; they are of very great 
heat, and contain a quantity of sulphur. In the 
springs women were boiling chickens. There are 
said to be some Roman remains in the baths, but we 
could find nothing of the kind. From San Pedro we 
went to the Bernardine Convent of San Christoval, 
most romantically situated in the midst of the beautiful 
rocky Serra de Gralieira, overhanging a rocky knoll 
covered with cork trees and various beautiful ever- 
greens, and crowned with a little chapel. This 
convent is very rich. There are only nine monks, 

D 



X 8 Oporto, September 1 1 ///, 1 8 1 2 . 

who received us most graciously and showed us the 
greatest civility and attentions. They were much 
better bred than the other monks we had seen in 
Portugal, especially the prior. We breakfasted and 
dined there, and departed much against their inclina- 
tion, for they pressed us much to stay some days for 
the shooting, as there are plenty of boars, wolves, 
hares, and partridges. They at last allowed us to 
depart, with the promise of passing some days with 
them if we should return through Portugal. We went 
that night to Arouca, a village where there is the 
largest and richest convent of nuns in Portugal. There 
are seven monks belonging to it, and seventy-nine 
nuns. We drank tea with the nuns, and supped with 
the monks, who gave us rooms and beds. The next 
morning we breakfasted with the nuns, and we dined 
with the monks. We saw the church, which is quite 
magnificent. These people are also Bemardines. 
The nuns were all well bred, but the monks vulgar, 
eating dogs, though very civil and attentive to 
us. We proceeded two leagues this evening, as we 
could not reach Lamego in a day, and slept at such 
a place as never was imagined in England ; here 
we could literally get nothing ! fortunately we had 



OportOy September wth, \%\2, 19 

brought a little bread with us, of which, with cold 
water, we made our supper and breakfast. Lamego 
is a dirty, old, shabby city, a league to the south of 
the Douro. We went hence in the morning to Regoa, 
the place of embarkation for Oporto, here is an 
English commissary ; we applied to him for a boat, 
but we were obliged to wait at Regoa two days, and 
on the third (last Wednesday, the 9th,) we set off at 
seven, and came four leagues, which we were eight 
hours about, and nothing would persuade our boat- 
men to go any farther till yesterday morning; we 
had some cold meat and some wine with us, on which 
we dined in the boat, and slept on our mattrasses ; it 
was an open one, but the night was very fine. Yester- 
day we were off at five, and at nine we reached Vimeiro, 
four leagues farther, and half-way between Oporto 
and Regoa ; here we changed boats, and arrived at 
Oporto at nine last night. We have been at a set of 
curious pigsties by way of inns, and such places as 
we have slept in you cannot even imagine ; our beds 
and clothes are full of fleas, which will be our de- 
lightful companions till we return to England ; I 
have thousands of bites about me. We have done 
very well in the eating way — we have generally 



ao Oporto, September wth, 1812. 

managed to get starved fowls, or chickens, and eggs ; 
in the towns we have had chocolate for breakfast, at 
the ventas or inns we used our own tea and sugar ; 
milk and butter are things one does not even ask for ; 
in cities the wine is generally sour, but has been 
drinkable, except in one or two places, when we used 
our brandy, and infamous it was ; we got it here, and 
it resembles whisky more than anything else; at 
Regoa we got some good wine, here it is that the 
port wine is made, but the Vin du Pays, throughout 
the provinces we have been in, is a sort of port. The 
Douro is a beautiful river on the whole ; we came 
16 leagues (or 64 miles) down it ; about Regoa and 
for two leagues down, the banks, which are very 
high, are entirely covered with vines, which is very 
ugly, hence, the scenery was very beautiful ! the 
banks were variously covered with rocks, chestnuts, 
oranges, heath, pines, olives, cork trees, convents, 
houses of hidalgos, and villages ; the last two leagues 
to Oporto we were most unluckily in the dark, I 
believe they are very beautiful. We intend staying 
here till Monday, when we shall go by Braga to the 
banks of the Minho, then by the Serra de Gerez to 
Chaves, Braganga, Miranda de Douro, Salamanca, 



oporto y September 1 1 //^, 1 8 1 2 . 21 

and Valladolid to Madrid. I hope to find several 
letters when we reach Cadiz, which will not be for 
a long time ; before Cadiz I see no probability of 
receiving a letter. We find from the difficulty of 
procuring horses and mules, that we must make an- 
other considerable diminution of our baggage, and we 
intend to send George (John's servant) with these 
things to Cadiz ; J. Cobb and Gabriel will remain 
with us, for we found there was too much for one ser- 
vant to do. Our beds and one cantine are absolutely 
necessary, but we shall take as few clothes as pos- 
sible. I hope I shall be able to send you a letter 
from Madrid, but I am not sure. I should imagine, 
however, that through Sir C. Stuart it might be done. 
I wish I knew him, — cannot you get Lady Stuart to 
write to him about me ? I have neither time nor the 
means of writing to Orlando ; I hope you will have 
told him of the change of our plans, on receiving my 
last letter, and I hope we shall meet at Cadiz some 
time or other. I have been quite well since I left 
you, and I think the climate will do me no harm. 
Adieu, my dearest parents. Love to all. 

Your ever affectionate 

And dutiful son. 



22 Oporto, September wth, 1812. 

P.S. — General Trant's letters of recommendation 
were of the greatest possible use to us. The Car- 
melites of Busaco never eating meat, we fared most 
miserably there, having nothing but filthy messes of 
garden stuff and stinking oil ; our position there seems 
impregnable ; we followed the road thence as far as 
Massena's head-quarters, and saw the road by which 
he retreated to Sardao, or as it is called, Sardaon. 
The Falls of the Douro, of which you may have 
heard much, are not rapid ; of all those we came down, 
only one was as strong as that of London Bridge. 





Oporto, 
Tuesday, September 15//^, 181 2. 







1 



MUST write you a few lines, my beloved 
mother, to send by Friday's post, in 
order to give you the latest news of us 
from this place ; we intended to have 
set out yesterday, but there never was anything like 
the difficulty of getting horses and mules. We have 
bought three horses and two mules for ourselves and 
our servants, being unable to hire them. They are 
but sorry animals, but they cost us ;£"94, or 330 dollars. 
General Wilson, governor of the province of Minho, 
whose head-quarters are at Vianna, a place on the sea- 
coast, 18 leagues north of Oporto, which we intend 
taking on our way to Madrid, is at present here, and 
promises to get us three baggage mules there. The 



24 oporto y September 15///, 181 2. 

mules at this place are most of them under embargo, 
for a great number of the medical staff; though I 
believe there are some in the town, yet the people 
deny it, thinking that if they were to let us take them 
to Madrid they would be taken for the army. We 
are going to-day to try every possible means of getting 
three to go as far as Vianna, and if we succeed we 
shall start to-morrow. We intend going to Gui- 
maraens and Braga, Ponte de Lima, Vianna, and Ca- 
minha, at the mouth of the Minho, thence up the river 
to Valenga, and back to Ponte de Lima and Braga ; 
from Braga we shall go to Montalegre, seeing the 
bridge of Salamonde (over which Soult made his 
famous retreat after his defeat at Oporto), and the 
Serra de Gerez, that lofty range which separates the 
province of Minho from Galicia ; then to Chaves, 
Braganga, Miranda de Douro, and Salamanca ; here 
we shall have the pleasure of viewing the field of 
battle where our army covered themselves with eternal 
glory, and we shall pursue the retreat of the French 
by Alba de Tormes and Tordesillas, to Valladolid ; 
thence taking the great road through Arevalo and 
the Pass of Guadarrama to Madrid. This journey will 
probably take us six weeks to perform, which will 



oporto, September 15//^, 1 812. 25 

bring us to the end of October. I suppose we shall 
reach Cadiz towards the close of the year. By the 
bye, after writing my last letter to you on the nth,, 
we heard of Soult having broken up from Seville and 
Cadiz. I hope if the Guards quit the latter place in 
consequence of this, that I shall be fortunate enough 
to meet with Orlando somewhere. I think, my dear 
mother, that through Sir C. Stuart you might con- 
trive to send me one letter to Madrid, as we shall 
certainly be there as late as two months from this 
time. There never was anything equal to the civility 
we have met with from everybody here. Marshal 
Beresford and his staff arrived on Friday from Sala- 
manca, where he has been since he received his 
wounds ; he embarked yesterday for Lisbon ; he is 
wonderfully well considering the severity of his 
wounds. His arrival here made the place very gay : 
the first night all the rank and fashion (as we say in 
England), attended him at the play, where there were 
several flowery eulogia addressed to him from the 
stage. It is a very pretty little theatre, but not suf- 
ficiently lighted. The performance was a tragic 
comedy, and a ballet ; the former I was not a judge 
of, but I believe it was bad ; the ballet wa^ intolerable. 

E 



26 oporto, September i^tk, 1812. 

The boxes are nearly all private, and the style of 
thing resembles our opera, the men going about from 
box to box. Saturday we had a ball, given by the 
Senhor Susa Mollo ; Sunday, another by Senhora 
Pamplona ; and yesterday a third at the English 
Factory House, where the rooms are very handsome. 
At the first I was made to dance with a lady who 
could only speak Portuguese ; yesterday and the day 
before I got partners who could talk English. I am 
the only gay one of our trio ; Clive and John have 
danced from necessity, but very little. Friday we 
dined at home ; Saturday with Marshal Beresford ; 
Sunday with Mr. Croft to meet the Marshal ; and 
yesterday at General Trant's, who is now living in the 
city, but will return soon to San Juan. A man has 
just been here from the governor, who gives us great 
hopes of procuring mules ; we shall know in two or 
three hours' time. We find money go very fast here : 
we have made acquaintance with an English wine 
merchant, Mr. Hinde, who has changed ;^200 English 
notes which I had, and has advanced ;^300 to Clive, 
which I hope will see us to Madrid ; but this horse 
buying and feeding is expensive work, and we English 
always get well cheated by foreigners. It is lucky we 



oporto^ September 1 5/^, 1 8 1 2. 27 

met with Mr. Hinde, for our letters of credit do not 
avail us here ; we are told they will be accepted at 
Madrid. I wanted to learn a little Spanish, but would 
you believe it, there is not a Spanish grammar or 
Spanish book of any description to be bought in this 
great Cidada do Porto, the second of the kingdom. 
Clive has lent me a Spanish dictionary, and I shall 
purchase a grammar and some easy books at Sala- 
manca. I shall very soon be able to read it — but the 
pronunciation is the Devil. Adieu for the present, 
My dearest Mother. 






Wednesday Morning, 
September i6th. 

HAVE only five minutes, my dear 
mother, to tell you that we bought three 
mules yesterday. Two of them are very 
fine ones, the third moderate ; we were 
obliged to pay $5 lO, which is ;£"i53, for them. We 
are now going to pay our farewell visit to General 
Trant, and we shall then proceed to a village four 
leagues off, half-way between this place and Gui-^ 
maraens. Clive desires to be kindly remembered to 
you, and that I will say he intends writing to you 
from Madrid. George (John's servant) does not go 
with us, he stays here to get some of our things 
washed, and then proceeds with all our extra luggage 
in a transport, or a merchant vessel, to Lisbon, and 
thence to Cadiz. Clive will not let me add another 
word. God bless my dear parents and friends. 

Your ever affectionate, &c., &c. 



i 





Salamanca, 
October ^th, 1812. 

My dearest Mother, 

OHN Russell and Clive are gone to the 
Marquesa de Ceralvo's, and I am come 
home to write to you. I had enjoyed 
the thoughts of giving you all the 
correct information I have collected touching our 
army, sick, &c., but my companions tell me that were 
I to specify numbers, my letter would probably be 
stopped before it reached you. Now, this is so extra- 
ordinary to me, and so unlike anything British, that 
I cannot believe it ; nevertheless, as they tell me so 
who from experience ought to know, I shall follow 
their advice, as I would rather that you should hear 
little than nothing from me. I just added my duty 
to a few lines John sent to you from Bragan^a, which 



30 Salamanca, October (^thy 1812. 

I hope you will get ; we then thought to arrive here 
in four days, but found the distance was twenty-five 
instead of nineteen leagues, which took us five days. 
We had quitted the beautiful country on coming into 
the province of Traz os Montes from that of Minho, 
which latter is extremely fine. Traz os Montes is a 
track of rugged, barren mountains ; the cities of 
Chaves and of Braganga are wretched places. Braga, 
Guimaraes, and the other towns of the Minho, are 
handsome, rich, and beautifully situated; and the 
Serra de Gerez, through a great part of which we 
passed, between Braga and Chaves, is very grand. 
On entering Spain at Villarino, a large village at the 
mouth of the River Tormes, I was much struck with 
the difference of dress, which is, in Spain, exceedingly 
ornamental, especially the women's, who wear a great 
variety of colours and embroidery, with their hair 
tied in a knot behind with different coloured ribbons. 
I have not had much time yet to judge of the people 
of Spain, but they appear, if civilly treated (for they 
require the greatest civility to be paid to them), to be 
amiable and obliging, and their manners very grace- 
ful and captivating. From Villarino we came by 
Ledesma to this place. We have had beautiful 



Salamanca, October i^th, 1812. 31 

weather ever since we landed, until the 6th (the day 
of our arrival here), during which it rained torrents ; 
the succeeding days have been much colder than 
is usual at this season in England, and, to-day ex- 
cepted, with long heavy showers. We had letters to 
Dr. Curtis and the Marques de Ceralvo here — the 
former rector of the Irish College, and an agreeable, 
intelligent man, who has been of great use to our 
army ; the other is a young grandee ; they have both 
been very civil to us, as well as everybody else we 
have met. Yesterday we dined with the Marques, 
and to-day with the Purveyor-General Dixon. We 
have seen most of the remains of the beautiful build- 
ings here ; it is enough to drive one distracted to see 
the devastation committed by the French barbarity — 
cursed vipers ! who destroy but for the sake of de- 
struction. The cathedral, as to building, remains 
entire, and is altogether a grand and beautiful fabric, 
but the architecture is very far from pure. There 
were here twenty-five colleges, and as many convents : 
seventeen of the former, and about eleven of the 
latter, are totally destroyed, and the rest turned into 
barracks or hospitals. The sort of hatred which a 
spectator must feel towards the destroyers is not to 



32 Salamanca y October <^th, 1812. 

be conceived. The College del Rey and the Convent 
of San Vicente are the two which the French em- 
ployed so much labour to make into fortresses ; these 
were thought but little of in England, and people 
imagined they were to be taken in an instant. We 
went over the remains of them, and their strength 
must have been immense ; the French employed 
1,000 workmen at them for near three years. We 
went to-day to the immortal field of Arapiles, it is a 
sad sight, however, for the ground is still covered 
with unburied carcasses of men and horses, on which 
flocks of vultures were feeding ; the stench even at 
this distant period of above eleven weeks, is very 
great ; and those who were there some time ago 
during the hot weather, described it as dreadful. We 
followed the enemy so fast that we had not time to 
bury half the dead, and the Spaniards are much too 
idle and slothful to stir themselves for their noble 
and generous allies ; they are a strange mixture of 
nobleness, sloth, and want of feeling. We have not 
heard of the taking of the Castle of Burgos yet, but 
it has probably fallen ere this, and the news is ex- 
pected to arrive here to-morrow. We start in the 
morning for Valladolid, and talk of going thence to 



Salamanca^ October (^th, 1812. 33 

Burgos, and afterwards by Segovia to Madrid, where 
it is supposed Lord Wellington will go as soon as 
Burgos falls. 

El Rey Jose is said to be at Saragossa ; Suchet and 
Soult united in Valencia ; Marmont and Bonnet are 
gone to France, the former will not allow his arm to 
be amputated, they are both said to be for ever hors 
de combat. Hill is at Madrid. God bless you my 
dear parents, &c. Soult is said to have 75,000 men, 
Clausel 30,000, but very much scattered for provisions. 
Hill 4,000 at Madrid, Lord Wellington I know not. 
We have a great many sick here, and this sudden 
cold has carried off several. 





Valladolid, 
October 16/A, 1812. 



My Dearest Mother, 




HAVE only time to write you a very 
few lines to say that we got here on the 
14th, saw this curious and large old town 
yesterday, and are just on the point of 
setting out for Burgos ; the castle there makes an 
obstinate resistance, and has already cost us many 
lives, it is uncommonly strong, and the garrison 2,000 
men. On the 13th the French attacked our advanced 
posts beyond Burgos, and Colonel Ponsonby was 
wounded severely in the thigh by a musket-ball ; 
however, the ball was immediately extracted, and 
has not injured the bone, so that he is likely, I am 
happy to say, to do well. We go to Burgos with 
only J. Cobb, and two or three changes of linen 



Valladolidy October i6th, 1812. 35 

and our blankets, and we shall return here on our 
way to Madrid, for we can get no information as to 
the direct road from Burgos by the Pass of Somo- 
sierra. 

One of our finest mules has been lamed in shoeing, 
and we were forced to leave him with our second 
muleteer at a village between Salamanca and this 
place, and hire one to come on. God knows when 
our own will be well. We have a report from head- 
quarters of the total defeat of the Russians, with the 
loss of 40,000 men, and the entry of the French into 
Moscow. I trust this is untrue, or I fear all will be 
over. We have had rainy weather for the last ten 
days, an unfortunate thing for our poor fellows at 
Burgos ! As we approach nearer to the seat of war 
melancholy sights present themselves. Yesterday 
we saw several bullock-carts with wounded men 
coming in, and it is shocking to see the torture they 
suffer by being jolted over the stones. If the slothful 
Spaniards had one grain of humanity or generosity, 
they would meet these poor fellows at the entrance of 
the towns and carry them over the stones ; but no ! 
they hate the French, and receive us everywhere with 
loud acclamations, and then forsooth return to their 



36 Valladolid, October 16 tk^ 181 2. 

former indolent habits, hoping and expecting every- 
thing must go on as they wish, but preferring to be 
conquered to making the slightest exertion in their 
own defence. I have only time to offer you my most 
affectionate duty, and to send my kind love to all 
those who care for me. 

Your ever dutiful son, &c. &c. 
I hear the third battalion of the First Guards are 
coming or come to Madrid, where I hope I shall meet 
Orlando. 






Salamanca, 
November 6th, 1812. 

My Dearest Father, 

E left this place a month ago in order to 
enjoy the consequences of the glorious 
battle of Arapiles, and we have returned 
here in haste after having been witnesses 
to two precipitate retreats. Never surely was there a 
greater disappointment to us English and Spaniards 1 
Nor is it at all impossible that the army may very 
soon return to Portugal j perhaps before this letter 
reaches you. 

Our whole army is now united near Arevalo, the 
head-quarters at Buedo ; and there are several Spanish 
armies with us under Castafios, perhaps 30,000. Our 
army, British and Portuguese, may be about 40,000 
effectives. The bridges over the Douro are all blown 



38 Salamanca, November 6ih, 181 2. 

up, excepting at Toro, which the French have got 
possession of, and they have crossed over three regi- 
ments of infantry to form a tete du pout, and some 
cavalry, who a day or two back, advanced to Alaijos, 
about three or four leagues towards the south-east. 
Marmont's old army, now under General Souham, are 
stretched along the north bank of the Douro, and 
are supposed to amount to 40,000, some say to 48,000 ! 
but this I don't believe. Soult has advanced from 
the south with all the men he could collect of his own, 
Suchet's, and Joseph's armies, having evacuated Va- 
lencia entirely, and he is supposed to have at least 
60,000 men. But he has left in his rear our army 
under Mackenzie (formerly Maitland's) and three 
Spanish armies, under Ballesteros, O'Donnell, and 
Roche, but where they are, or what they are about, 
we have not even a guess. Such, my dear father, are 
the reports of this place, as we have been able to 
collect them, and I have given them to you, although 
you probably know in England a thousand times 
better than we do here, but I think you may like to 
know the reports from all quarters. Lord Wellington 
having been appointed Generalissimo of the Spanish 
armies is a great thing, but it is melancholy to see 



Salamanca, November 6th, 1 8 1 2. 39 

the slow progress with which the new levies proceed ; 
there have, as yet, only been 1 50 recruits raised in the 
immense province of Castille, although the whole 
country swarms with men ready to enter the army at 
a moment's notice. The Spaniards are a fine people 
and deserve to be free, but their government and the 
higher orders are despicable ; their hatred for the 
French exceeds anything I could have imagined, and 
their minds can never be conquered by them. Some 
time or other their cause must succeed, but I fear 
years have yet to roll away ere that glorious end can 
be accomplished ; but if it pleases God that I should 
live to a moderate age, I do not despair of seeing the 
overbearing Corsican crushed to atoms by the united 
and persevering efforts of England and Spain. 

I will now give you a short account of our last 
month's tour, or rather three weeks', for I fancy it is 
about that time since I wrote from Valladolid. We 
got as far as head-quarters at Villatoro, near Burgos, 
and stayed there one day. We rode to see our posi- 
tion in front, and saw the French descend in large 
columns, apparently to attack us. We gave way a 
little, when Lord Wellington brought down the First 
Division, upon which the French immediately retired 



40 Salamanca, November dth, \%\2, 

without engaging. This was considered a recon- 
noitring, and everyone was prepared for a battle the 
next day, and the head-quarters were removed farther 
in front. In the morning we sent our baggage and J. 
Cobb into Burgos, meaning to sleep there that night 
(for although the town is immediately under the castle, 
the inhabitants could not be hurt without their de- 
stroying the town, and this they would not do), and 
we rode again to the front. We remained there some 
hours, but the French did not show any disposition to 
attack, and all idea of a battle that day being given 
up, we were returning to Burgos when we heard that 
news had arrived from the south which determined 
Lord Wellington immediately to retire over the Douro. 
This was a blow to us ! We entered Burgos, found 
our baggage, dined, and proceeded three leagues on 
our return to a small village, where all we could get 
was an uninhabited roof and a little straw. The next 
morning the French entered Burgos. We stopped 
one day in Valladolid, and proceeded by Arivalo to 
Segovia. But I have forgot Burgos. It is a fine town, 
and the cathedral quite beautiful; the castle is im- 
mense, and strength itself. It contained a garrison of 
two thousand men, and cost us at least that number in 



Salamanca, November 6th, iZi 2, 41 

the siege. We arrived at Segovia on the 30th ult. It 
is a fine old city, and the situation of it magnificent. 
The castle stands beautifully, and is a venerable old 
pile, especially the old Torre, famous as the prison of 
Gil Bias. The cathedral is very handsome, and con- 
tains a great deal of fine painted glass — the Spanish 
cathedrals have been famous for fine pictures, but the 
French have got them all. The next day we went to 
San Ildefonso, a magnificent and beautifully situated 
palace at the foot of the Guadalaxara ; the gardens 
are very fine, and laid out in the old taste, with mag- 
nificent water- works, which do not now play ; we were 
lodged in the palace, which is very comfortable, and 
beautifully furnished. There is an extensive collec- 
tion of pictures, and it appeared to us to contain num- 
bers of fine ones, but we wanted light to see them ; 
there are also some fine statues and marbles. While 
looking over these a peasant arrived, and told us the 
French were in Madrid, and the allies in full retreat. 
We got off early the next morning, and entered the 
great road to Corunna, by which our army retreated 
by San Rafael. Here we found ourselves in the 
midst of our retreating army, which confirmed the 
peasant's report, and left us nothing but to make the 

G 



42 Salamanca, November 6th, \Z\2, 

best of our way to Salamanca, cruelly disappointed at 
having been cut off from seeing Madrid and the Es- 
curial. Here we had some more hardships, for Clive 
having stayed behind for our baggage while John and I 
went on to procure a night's lodging, we missed each 
other, and did not join again for four and twenty 
hours, during which John and I got neither beds nor 
a single mouthful to eat ; however, we were in high 
luck to join again the next morning. One thing that 
I lament among many others is, that I know not now 
when I shall be able to learn the Spanish language, 
which it is impossible to do while in constant motion, 
and I had intended to have had a master at Madrid. 
Henry Williams was here yesterday, on his way from 
Cadiz to England, and he brought me letters from 
Charles and Orlando. Alas ! poor Orlando is cruelly 
disappointed at being kept at Isla ; I hope he will 
soon remove, poor fellow ! but I fear he is very unwell. 
Charles will probably be in England ere this reaches 
you. Pray give him my kind love, and a thousand 
thanks for his letter. I wish he had stayed a little 
longer at Cadiz, and we should then have met there ; 
possibly something may bring him into this part of 
the world before I leave it, but the chance is small, I 



Salama7ica, November 6 th^ 1812. 43 

fear. Their letters were dated the 4th and 5th of 
October. Orlando says he is to be moved to Lisbon 
when he is better ; if I could be certain of finding 
him there, I would contrive to take it in my way to 
Cadiz ; but as it is so uncertain, and that nothing will 
persuade John and Clive to go there, I believe I had 
better give up all thoughts of it. I had fancied my- 
self very near Orlando when in the midst of Hill's 
army, until I got his letter yesterday. We intend to 
go from hence to Cadiz, taking in our way Ciudad 
Rodrigo, Alcantara, Badajoz, Merida, and Seville, and 
if it is safe, also Cordova, Andujar, Jaen, Granada, 
Malaga, and Gibraltar. I begged of my mother, in a 
letter from Oporto, to write to me at Madrid ; if she 
was so good as to do so, I fear the letter must be lost, 
but who would have imagined it at the time I wrote ! 
We have had generally fine weather lately, and for 
two or three hours in the afternoon the sun has been 
scorching, but the rest of the twenty-four hours the 
cold has been astonishing, far exceeding that of Eng- 
land, and the want of fire-places in this country is 
most severely felt by us. We are liable in this town 
to a surprise from the French crossing at Toro ; but 
we have 1,500 convalescents as a garrison, and there 



44 Salamanca, November 6 thy 1812. 

IS a Moorish wall round the town, at all the gates of 
which we have sentries, and two cavalry piquets are 
posted on different roads, two leagues off, to give the 
alarm, so that if they send any small detachments I 
think they will get the worst of it. We intend re- 
maining here a few days unless Lord Wellington 
should retire further — we arrived the day before yes- 
terday. We have never got our mule that we left be- 
hind us lame ; we have heard of its following us to 
Segovia, but I fear either the French, English, or 
Spaniards have got possession of her ; she is a beauti- 
ful creature, and a great loss. We have bought 
another at Valladolid, but he does not turn out very 
well. Accept, my dear parents, my kind relations 
and friends, my united and sincere love, affection, and 
duty, 

And believe me, &c. &c. 






Badajoz, 
November 2 3 r^, 1 8 1 2. 

My Dear Mother, 

INCE my last we have travelled over a 
large tract of country, most of it devoid 
of interest, and very ugly. Spain is in- 
deed, I believe, altogether as ugly a 
country as the globe contains ; however, there are 
some fine scenes in passing through the Sierra de 
Gata, which divides Leon and Estremadura. Ciudad 
Rodrigo is a nasty old town, and half of it a heap of 
ruins. Its situation is naturally strong, but the walls 
old and crazy; the breach which was made in the 
last siege, and which the Spaniards had rebuilt, has 
fallen down again, and they are once more employed 
in slowly replacing it. Alcantara possesses a work 
well worth travelling many leagues to see. I mean 



46 Badajoz, November 23^^, 18 12. 

its magnificent Roman bridge over the Tagus, which 
here runs in a deep and narrow bed of bare and 
almost perpendicular rocks. The parapet of the 
bridge when we were there was 115 feet above the 
water, and in summer is more. The span of the 
centre arch is 107 feet, and of the other two principal 
ones (of which one is blown up) 90 feet. It has three 
other smaller arches, built on the rocky banks. The 
road over it is a perfect flat. I know not if I men- 
tioned the Roman aqueduct we saw at Segovia ; 
that is, without any exception, the most beautiful 
and grandest edifice I ever beheld. The parapet is 
102 feet high; but it would be in vain for me to 
attempt a description of it — I only wish you could 
see it. Elvas is very prettily situated, and surrounded 
by very finely shaped hills covered with olives. Fort 
la Lippe crowns the highest of them, and it is as 
beautiful an object as it is a strong fort. Badajoz is 
in a frightful country, of which itself is no great orna- 
ment. The garrison consists of near 5,000 Spaniards, 
and the governor's name is Rodriguez. The Marques 
de Palacios (Governor-General of Estremadura) is 
resident here, but they say is on the point of being 
removed, why, I do not hear. Ballesteros, they say, 



BadajoZy November 2'^rd, 1812. 47 

is a prisoner at Gibraltar, having kicked at Lord 
Wellington's appointment as Generalissimo, and he 
has written several violent letters to the Regency ; 
where his army is, or by whom commanded, we 
cannot learn. We have heard reports of our army, 
which are bad ; but we know nothing for certain. 
They say Suchet remains very strong in Valencia ; 
that Lord William Bentinck has taken the command 
of our army at Alicante, bringing 5,000 fresh troops, 
but is not able to cope with him. Lord Wellington, 
they say, has retired to Rodrigo with much loss, 
particularly in cavalry; that the French have 11,000 
cavalry in the field ; that we have totally lost the i6th 
Light Dragoons and a regiment of Dragoon Guards ; 
besides which, that a German regiment of cavalry has 
been dreadfully cut up. The whole of this may be 
false, and the greatest part probably is. I tell you 
the reports we get at each place as I think they may 
amuse you, but they are not to be depended upon. 
At some town on our road (I think Albuquerque) this 
affair of cavalry was made out to be a great victory on 
our side, and a total overthrow of the French cavalry. 
The sanguine disposition and absurd credulity of the 
lower class of Spaniards are beyond conception. 



48 Badajoz, November i-^rd, \Z\2. 

Since we left Leon and Castille and entered Estrema- 
dura we have found a great difference in the people. 
The former are amiable, of pleasing manners, obliging, 
and speak the purest Castillian ; the Estremenos are 
sulky, of rough manners, disobliging, and their lan- 
guage scarcely intelligible. However, they all seem 
equally to detest the French, but they are by no 
means as grateful to us ! In this town it is not sur- 
prising, for I fear it is a melancholy truth, that the 
horrid and unnatural enormities committed by our 
soldiery after the assault, were before almost unheard 
of. We have, on the whole, been fortunate in our 
weather, having had few thorough rainy days. We 
arrived here on Saturday, and are staying to get 
our linen washed. We hope to get away about 
Thursday, for this is a nasty place, and we have got a 
miserable billet. Clive has been writing to you this 
morning. We are all (masters and servants) very 
prosperous. The latter detest this country, and will 
have fine stories to tell in the servants' hall about it. 
We go from hence to Merida, thence to Seville. I 
have written to Colonel Capel to beg of him to send 
me a line to Seville to inform me whether Orlando is 
still at Isla, or gone to Lisbon ; if the former we shall 



Badajoz, November 2yrd, iZ\2, 49 

proceed immediately to Cadiz, if the latter we shall 
first visit Cordova and Granada ; in the former case 
we shall be at Cadiz in eighteen or nineteen days, 
and I hope there to have a little news from England, 
after an ignorance of between four and five months. 
We went round the ramparts yesterday, and it quite 
staggers me to see the walls our men climbed to take 
the castle ; the ladders were not high enough, and 
when they were full of men others below lifted them 
up, ladders and all. This end of the town and that 
washed by the Guadiana excepted, the walls are by 
no means strong, and the great strength consists in 
the three outworks : — San Christoval, Pardaleras, and 
Picurifia. We are going to see them to-day. 

God bless you, &c. &c. 




H 




Cadiz, 
December \^ih^ 1812. 



My Dearest Mother, 




TAKE up my pen with particular 
pleasure here, as this letter will give 
you information of several things which 
will be agreeable to you, I am sure. I 
have to acknowledge several letters from England, 
which have given me more comfort than I can ex- 
press, although the pleasure I have had in reading 
them was damped by the very indifferent accounts 
they contain of my much valued grandfather ; but I 
will no longer delay to tell you that I found Orlando 
still here, a great piece of good fortune. I cannot 
say he is quite recovered, but I trust in a few days 
more he will be so ; he intends to write to you by the 
next packet, and will tell you our mutual proceedings 



Cadiz, December iZth, 1812. 51 

here. I will therefore confine myself to what we 
have done since I last wrote, and our future plans, as 
far as I can, but these are unsettled. We were pleased 
with Merida, which is a nice old town, and contains 
most extensive remains of the Romans, two aque- 
ducts, an amphitheatre, and a naumachia, with 
temples, and houses in ruins ; a fine triumphal arch, 
and a bridge without an end, I really never could 
count the arches of it ; it is partly Roman, repaired 
successively by the Moors and Spaniards ; hence to 
Seville the road was uninteresting. Seville is a most 
magnificent and a most delightful town, and one can 
never see enough of the cathedral ; there are a vast 
number of public buildings, many of which are very 
handsome palaces. The climate, the moment we came 
to the south of the Sierra Morena, was most extra- 
ordinary ; all to the north is very little warmer than 
England, but the four days we were at Seville were 
actually like the month of August with us ; the 
thermometer was 71° in the shade, and the evenings 
and nights quite sultry. Seville is very remarkable 
for the beauty of its women, but I fear they bestow 
all their charms on the French, and sigh for their 
return ; they dress quite beautifully, and the Paseo 



52 Cadiz, December \%thy 1812. 

(walk) or Alameda was crowded with them on Sunday 
evening, and the gayest, prettiest scene I ever beheld. 
Seville is a most curious town for any one to see who 
never was before in Andalucia, of which it is the 
radiant queen ; its streets are almost all extremely 
narrow, but the houses are very large, and quite de- 
lightful ; they have one or two large courts, to which 
the rooms or corridors open. These courts are paved 
with different coloured tiles, and ornamented by foun- 
tains and orange trees, and several have small marble 
pillars. The staircases, and around the doors, are also 
marble ; the floors are generally of coloured tiles, and 
floors of wood are scarcely ever seen in Spain — never 
in the south — they are commonly of bricks. This 
description of a house is nearly applicable to all this 
southern country, but in the greatest perfection at 
Seville. I saw the Fungion in the cathedral there on 
the Fiesta de la Concepcion, and I cannot say how 
disappointed I was, having heard so much of the 
magnificence of such fiestas in Spain, and especially 
in Seville Cathedral, which is one of the richest 
churches in Spain. The exterior of it is an unfinished 
pile of mixed architecture, but is immense, and, 
altogether, has a grand appearance. There is a very 



Cadiz, December i2>tk, 1812. 55 

high tower, the greatest part Moorish, which you 
ascend without steps — it is called the Giralda (in 
Spanish pronunciation Hiralda), and from the top of 
it there is a magnificent view of the city and its 
environs. The country is not pretty, but the hills are 
covered with olives planted in rows, and present a 
lively and cultivated appearance ; and the gardens of 
vegetables round the town are well cultivated. The 
orange gardens belonging to the palace, and the con- 
vents with myrtle hedges, are delightful. At Xeres, 
on our way here, we called on M. Gordon, a sherry 
merchant, whom John knew, and he gave us some of 
the best sherry I ever tasted. I wish there was a butt 
of it at Weston. Xeres is a very pretty town, and 
Puerto de Santa Maria, and Cadiz, are beautiful. Isla 
is a large, good town ; but poor Puerto Real is entirely 
destroyed by the French. John and Clive came 
straight here ; I stayed at Isla for a day with Orlando, 
and we then came here together ; we and John have 
got a good lodging upon the Bay, and close to the 
Alameda ; Clive is at Sir H. Wellesley's — we came 
here on the 15th. I am going to work hard at 
Spanish, and hope to have a master to-morrow. I 
have picked up a good deal of the language from my 



54 Cadizy December \%th, 1812. 

grammar, and talking with the peasants, and I can 
read it tolerably with occasional assistance from the 
dictionary ; but I want a master, and some good 
society, very much. Lord Wellington has been ex- 
pected for the last two days, and Sir Henry is at 
Santa Maria waiting for him. I hope his coming will 
make this place very gay. We have altered our plans 
in consequence of hearing that the fever is over in 
Murcia; we now intend to stay here three weeks 
longer, and then we shall go to Gibraltar, Malaga, 
and Granada, thence to Cordova, and back to Gra- 
nada, whence we shall proceed to Murcia, Cartagena, 
and Alicante, and there embark for Port Mahon, from 
whence we are sure of a passage to Malta or to Sicily. 
It is singular that we shall have been through so very 
large a part of the Peninsula without seeing either of 
the capitals ; we were cruelly out of luck about 
Madrid. I have laid out about £60 in books here ; I 
hope they will get safe to England. Clive says I may 
send them to Sir H. Wellesley's, to go with some of 
his from thence. I have got a large folio of the maps 
of Spain, by Lopez, the best there are, and I shall 
endeavour wherever I go to procure the best maps I 
can of each country, for they are delightful things to 



Cadiz, December i Zth, 1 8 1 2. 55 

have. Our mules and horses are all well, and have 
served us most famously. Things in the Peninsula 
have not a very bright face at present ; they report 
that the French are advancing through Estremadura 
towards Seville, and Lord Wellington's delay seems 
to strengthen it, as he might be forced to take a cir- 
cuitous route, and come by Agramonte. They talk 
much of an insurrection ; these Andaluses are a bad 
people; the Sevillians want to change the govern- 
ment, and set up the old Seville Junta again ; Cordova 
and Jaen are said to have joined them, and they 
offered Castafios the Regency. He has discovered 
the plan, and the heads are taken up and brought 
here. They say the people here are discontented, but 
I don't think anything will come from this. The 
Andaluses are a poor, paltry set ; you would have 
been astonished to have seen the peasants at Arapiles 
ploughing their lands in the midst of the putrid car- 
casses ; but you can have no idea of the inertness of 
these people, without seeing it. They were employed 
in their fields with the greatest sang froid in this 
pestilential air. They have no notion of doing one 
iota more than appears to them absolutely necessary 
for the moment. There is a good play-house here. 



5 6 Cadiz, December 23^^, 181 2. 

and some good actors and Bolero dancers. I have 
seen all the Spanish and gipsy dances, and most 
curious and singular they are— the Fandango is pretty ; 
the Spanish Contra Dansa is very pretty too; the 
time is the same as the waltz, and there is a great deal 
of waltzing in them, which, introduced in figures, is 
beautiful. I long to dance them, but I cannot speak 
Spanish well enough to be at my ease. We have 
had terribly rainy weather ever since we were at 
Seville until yesterday, since when it has been fine, 
but rather sharp ; we feel the want of fires. Sir Henry 
Wellesley has famous ones, and his house is very 
comfortable. 

December 23 n/.— Still no intelligence of Lord 
Wellington. There is a debate this morning in the 
Cortes on the subject of these Seville delinquents ; 
Clive and John are going to hear it, but I am not 
forward enough in the language to understand it — it 
is expected to be very animated. There is no order 
yet for the packet's sailing, and I suppose she will be 
detained till the Duque's arrival — I mean Lord Wel- 
lington. I shall keep my letter open till the last 
moment, though I shall probably have little to say. 
I have seen Charles's friends, the Villa Vicencias and 



Cadiz, December 2 8//^, 1 8 1 2 . 57 

Boronis, but the nicest girl I have seen is the daughter 
of the Duquesa de Goa ; she is very young, but has 
a pretty face and figure, dances beautifully, and has 
pretty manners, which is more than can be said of 
all the Spanish girls, who are terribly vulgar and 
forward. 

December 2%th. — I have nothing, my dear mother, 
to say to-day. Orlando has mentioned Lord Wel- 
lington's arrival, he is gone to-day to see the Spanish 
and British troops at the Isla. It is a most wretched 
day — ^violent storms of wind and rain. Two balls 
are to be given to Lord Wellington, one by Sir 
Henry Wellesley, which they say is to be the day 
after to-morrow ; and the other by the grandees who 
are here, the day for which is not yet fixed. We shall 
dine at home, as Sir Henry has a very large party of 
merchants and officers. Lord Wellington dined with 
the Regency on Saturday, and afterwards went to the 
theatre, where he was well received ; the house was 
illuminated, and patriotic songs were sung. They 
have put Spanish words to our " God save the King," 
introducing George the Third and Ferdinando the 
Seventh together. " George " in Spanish is a frightful 
word, it is spelt "Jorge" and pronounced " Horky." 

I 



5$ Cadiz, December 2W1, 181 2. 

There are a swarm of English travellers expected here 
from Lisbon, they are on the road, and may arrive 
any day, to the number of twenty. I fancy Sir 
Henry is a little annoyed at the idea, as it has always 
been his custom to give general invitations to all 
English travellers. We had a pleasant dinner enough 
yesterday at Costello's. There was a dance at the 
theatre the other night that I had not seen before — the 
Seguidillas Manchegas (a la Mancha Danse), which is 
excessively pretty. The number of different national 
Spanish dances is very great, almost every province 
has one peculiar to itself, they are all danced with 
castanets, and in the most beautiful dresses. There 
are several good dancers of these dances at the 
theatre, but sometimes they attempt short French 
ballets, and they make sad work of them ; we go 
every night to the play. I wish you could know the 
language, it is as beautiful as the Italian, and 
grandeur itself. On Monday the performance was 
entirely by women, a singular, but, of course, a tire- 
some thing ; there was a comedy, a short musical 
piece, boleros, a little French ballet, and a farce, and 
all the parts were played by women ; even the 
prompter was a woman ! and they managed the 



Cadiz, Dece7nber 2%th, 1812. 59 

scenery, trimmed the lamps, in short, did everything, 
and would not allow a man to approach behind the 
scenes ; they really got through it wonderfully well, 
though they were a little tedious. Yesterday Orlando 
dined with General Cooke, and John and I with Sir 
Henry, who gave a grand dinner to the Regency and 
big-wigs ; there were above forty persons, and the 
table was very handsome. We went afterwards to 
some theatricals at la Sefiora Orgullo's ; she has made 
a pretty little theatre of one of her rooms, and they 
performed a comedy, an opera, and boleros ; there 
was a cousin of the lady's (a girl only fourteen years 
old) who acted excessively well in the comedy, and 
Senora OrguUo and two gentlemen sung very well 
in the opera. To-day Lord Wellington went to the 
Cortes, where he made them a speech of thanks, and 
had an answer from the President as empty of essence 
as it was full of flummery and vanity ; they both 
read their speeches. Lord Wellington was much 
applauded from the gallery; but there is a large 
French party here, who take great pains to insinuate 
that we are going to betray Spain, take the govern- 
ment into our own hands, and declare Lord Welling- 
ton regent ; this is generally supposed the cause of 



6o Cadizy yamcary i^/, 1813. 

his not having been received on landing with any 
applause, and of the little that he has since met with ; 
he dines to-day with Mr. Duff, the British Consul, as 
do the embassy and the general and his staff, we 
again, therefore, dine at home. The ambassador's ball 
takes place to-night. We had torrents of rain all 
yesterday, to-day it is dry but cloudy. 

January \st, 18 13. — A merry Christmas and a 
happy New Year to you all, my dear parents and 
friends ; the packet sails to-day, and I shall take my 
letters after breakfast to Clive. Sir Henry's ball was 
very handsome, and there were crowds of people ; six 
hundred were invited, but not near that number 
came. Our departure is not fixed, but it will pro- 
bably be in about ten days. Lord Wellington is 
expected to go in three or four. Lord Herbert,^ 
with a crowd of travellers, is at Seville) waiting, I under- 
stand, for a bull feast which is appointed for the 6th, 
but probably will not take ' place so soon. I get on 
a little with my Spanish, and I venture to talk some- 
times to the ladies. God bless you, &c., &c. 

• The late Earl of Pembroke. 





Cadiz, 
January 22ndy 1813. 

My Dearest Mother, 

EDNESDAY morning two packets came 
in from England, bringing me your 
letters 13, 14, and 15, which I have been 
long anxiously expecting. We had been 
without a packet from England ever since the 17th of 
December ; I had learnt the death of my poor grand- 
father ^ from Clive, who saw it in the " Courier " of 
the 17th ult, which had come overland from Lisbon 
about a fortnight ago ; it did not surprise me at all, 
as I had been expecting the event some time from 
the melancholy accounts I had previously received 
of him from you, but you will easily conceive how 
anxious I have ever since been to learn the melan- 

* Viscount Torrington. 



62 Cadiz, January 22nd, 181 3. 

choly particulars of his last days and those that suc- 
ceeded his death ; that it was easy and without any 
pain is a comfortable reflection, and as, alas ! all en- 
joyment of this life seemed for some time to have 
left him, an easy relief from its cares and infirmities 
was a thing rather to be desired than lamented. Yet, 
my dear mother, that he should have been deprived 
in his last moments, dear amiable old man, of the 
power of expressing all his wishes, must, I fear, have 
caused him considerable mental suffering, and the 
account of this distressed me greatly. However, I 
am much to blame in writing thus to you, my dearest 
mother, who, Heaven knows, will have sufficient grief 
of your own without being worried with other people's 
feelings on this melancholy subject. You know how 
much I loved my dear kind grandfather, who always 
behaved with such true affection to me ; and although 
when I took leave of him I felt convinced it was for 
the last time, yet the certainty that one never is again 
to behold in this world a beloved and highly-valued 
parent and friend cannot be heard unmoved. 

Pardon me, my dear mother, the pain this may give 
you ; I am sure you would have been hurt had I been 
quite silent on the subject — ^which once entered upon, 



Cadiz, January 22ndy 1813. 63 

the pen will sometimes follow the feelings further 
than it should. You will probably have heard from 
Orlando from Lisbon ; he sailed from hence on the 
evening of the 8th instant, with Captain Bateman in 
the " Stately," for that port. I have not heard of his 
arrival, and I fear he must have had a bad voyage, 
for the wind has been very adverse ; he was fortunate 
to get so good a passage ; we have been waiting here 
some time longer than we intended for the arrival of 
the packet ; we shall now start on Monday next, the 
25th, sleep that night at Isla, and get to Gibraltar on 
the Thursday ; we intend to go over from thence to 
Ceuta and Tetuan, and to stay a few days at the 
latter place for shooting. We shall not remain many 
days at Gibraltar, but proceed, as I mentioned in my 
last letter, to Alicante, there to embark for Malta. I 
am much disappointed at the fall of a plan that was 
in agitation for a short time ; when Lord Wellington 
was here he was constantly talking of being early in 
the summer at Madrid, and several times advised 
John to stay for the opening of the next campaign ; 
John and Clive in consequence proposed this to me, 
which I came into with delight ; I intended to have 
gone from hence after seeing Gibraltar and Granada, 



64 Cadiz, Ja7iuary 22nd, 181 3. 

to Lisbon, and we were all to have followed the army 
to Madrid, if open. Why or wherefore I know not (for 
they give no reason), the two originators of the plan 
are now obstinately and immoveably against it, and I 
foresee now that I shall never see Lisbon or Madrid. 

It is probable that we shall return to England by 
Russia or France (for I think by that time we are 
likely to be at peace). Herbert arrived here some 
time ago with several Englishmen from Lisbon ; he 
brought me a letter from old Bromley,^ which was 
very gratifying. Herbert will join us in Sicily, and 
accompany us in our eastern tour. Upon second 
thoughts I determined to purchase a pipe of sherry 
for my father while I was on the spot ; I have got it 
from M. Costello, from whom Clive has purchased 
four for different persons, of the same sort ; it appears 
to us to be excellent wine, and I hope it will prove 
so ; I have paid for the wine and freightage, and no- 
thing remains to be paid but the disembarkation 
and duty. Tell Lucy,^ with my love, that I have 



* One of the Harrow masters, and tutor to Mr. Bridgeman. 
' His sister, afterwards Lady Lucy Whitmore, wife of W. 
Wolryche Whitmore, Esq., M.P. 



Cadiz, January 22nd, iSi^,. 65 

taken the greatest pains to procure her some Spanish 
music, but hitherto without success. Music is not 
printed in this country, and the only means of having 
it is to get it copied ; this my friend Ysnardi pro- 
mised to do for me ; he spoke to a music-master, and 
if it is not finished before I go he promises to send it 
to you. There is to be the Fandango, the Seguidillas 
Manchegas, some Boleros, Cachuchas, and Oles, and 
the Zapateado — all dances, the last, of the Gypsies ; 
there are also some songs and a march : the Spanish 
music is pretty, very peculiar and characteristic. 
I fear Lucy will find it difBcult to catch the style 
and time unless she meets with somebody who 
has been in Spain. I have been unlucky about 
my Spanish master. He is in the Commissariat 
Office, and this made him so irregular in coming to 
me that I gave him up. I only got fourteen lessons 
of an hour each. My books, with Clive's and John's, 
we intend sending to Gibraltar, and there we hope 
Commissioner Fraser will get some King's ship to 
take them to England. We have seen all the fortifi- 
cations and defences of this island; they are immensely 
strong and extensive. I believe it is the strongest 
place by nature and art in the world. They say it is 

K 



66 Cadiz, Jamiary 22fid, 1 8 1 3. 

much stronger than Gibraltar. Its great strength 
consists in the marshy lands and salt ditches with 
which it IS surrounded on the land side, rendering it 
impossible for troops to approach it in large bodies. 
They are cutting a canal across the Trocadero to the 
river San Pedro, which will insulate the part nearest 
to Cadiz. This is an immense work, and though a 
thousand workmen are employed upon it, it will not 
be completed for many months. I certainly was 
guilty of a great error if I did not mention having 
seen Lord Wellington at Burgos. We dined with 
him at 9 o'clock the day we passed at head-quarters, 
after having seen the advance of the French — surely I 
must have mentioned our misfortune in not seeing 
them driven back that evening. This it was which 
made Lord Wellington so late back at head-quarters. 
He had very few of his aides-de-camp there with 
him. I liked much what I saw of the Prince of 
Orange ; he seems a fine, manly, young fellow, aijd 
bears an excellent character. When we proceeded 
from Burgos to Madrid we were aware that it was 
likely soon to be given up, but we determined to try 
if we could not get there just in time to see it — we 
knew it depended on the celerity of Soult. Surely I 



Cadiz, Januaiy 23;'^, 181 3. 67 

mentioned that Clive and the baggage passed us while 
we were looking out for them, on the road close to 
the village where John and I passed the night. They 
proceeded to Villa Castin — the town we had originally 
determined to stop at. The night being very dark 
caused us to miss seeing them among the crowds of 
baggage, mules, carts, troops, &c. &c., and the ex- 
cessive confusion of the scene. They passed us about 
eight o'clock, and John and I continued keeping 
watch alternately on the road till ten. The night was 
pitch dark and piercing cold, with a damp fog falling, 
and we were nearly in a torpid state. We started 
from our hovel very early, and reached Villa Castin 
at daybreak, where, in the market-place, we were 
inexpressibly delighted to find Clive and J. Cobb 
looking out for us. The reason we had stopped at 
the other village was that we knew great numbers of 
troops were to put up at Villa Castin, and we thought 
every roof would be occupied. As it was, in neither 
place could we be said to have found shelter, either 
for man or beast. 

January 2ird. — There are accounts from Alicante 
which mention indications of general movements in 
the French armies of Valencia, &c., &c. It is here 



68 Cadiz, January 23;"^, 181 3. 

confidently believed that they intend making an attack 
on Alicante or retiring over the Ebro; the latter 
opinion is the most prevalent. The ball given by the 
grandees to Lord Wellington on the 4th was very 
magnificent, but the crowds were so immense that 
people could not stir; nothing that I ever saw in 
London can be compared to it. They say it cost 
near 20,000 dollars. The supper tables and other 
decorations were handsome and in good taste, but so 
little good order was preserved that people of all 
descriptions got in, and the tables were filled four or 
five different times. There were covers only for 300, 
and it is calculated that near 3,000 were present at 
the same time. There were several good devices both 
in Latin and Spanish, and the united flags of Great 
Britain, Russia, and Portugal in all directions. The 
heat was precisely that of a hot-house, but of course 
of a more disagreeable nature ; nevertheless the 
Spanish women were not deterred from dancing, or 
rather jostling in the crowd. I left about thirty or 
forty couples dancing at half-past seven, and it con- 
tinued till nine. There was a great display of beauty 
and of magnificent dresses. The grand supper-table 
was a beautiful sight when first filled. It contained 



Cadiz, January 23^^, 181 3. 69 

120 covers, which were all occupied by ladies, ex- 
cepting Lord Wellington, his brother, and three or 
four other men. There was a malicious report that 
Lord Wellington was to be poisoned, and the ladies 
would not allow him, poor hungry man, to touch 
anything. The Duchess of Osuna sent for some 
dishes from her own house for him. Sir Henry 
Wellesley gave a second ball on the 9th, which I was 
not at, having just heard the news of my poor grand- 
father's death. Lord Wellington went the following 
day through Badajoz to Lisbon. John's servant (who, 
by the way, is an excellent one) came here from 
Oporto, via Lisbon. Fortunately a transport is going 
hence to Gibraltar on Tuesday, in which he will go 
with our heavy luggage ; thence we intend to send 
him on to Malta. You need not think about our want 
of comforts, for I know not why, but travellers do not 
feel those things as might be expected, and they are 
much greater in imagination than in fact. A great 
friend of mine is now here. Lord Bayning. He will 
go to the Isla with us on Monday and proceed as far 
as the field of Barrosa, whence he will return here. 
God bless you, my dearest mother, &c., &c. 





Gibraltar, 
February 2nd, 181 3. 

My dear Mother, 

HE packet is to sail for England to- 
morrow, therefore I will write to you the 
little I have to say since leaving Cadiz. 
John and I went to the Isla on Monday 
the 25th, but Clive could not get our passports till 
Wednesday, on which day he joined us with them 
early in the morning, and we proceeded over the 
Barrosa field of battle, still strewed with carcases, to 
Vejer, a curious old town, situated at the summit of 
a steep, rocky hill, six leagues from Isla. John, who 
had bought a gun at Cadiz, dawdled behind on the 
Barrosa hills in search of game, while Clive and I 
regularly proceeded on. Four leagues from Isla we 
came to the small town of Conil, on the sea cliffs. 



Gibraltar, Febrii^ary 2nd, 181 3. 71 

From hence the road to Vejer, two leagues, is quite 
shocking — road, indeed, it could not be called, it was 
merely the tracks of footsteps over fields. The soil is 
a tenacious clay, in which the animals sunk each step 
nearly knee deep ; we were obliged to walk, and were 
one plaster of clay to the knees. We passed a river, 
and it soon after became pitch dark. Thus we pro- 
ceeded for some time, and at last came up to our ser- 
vants and mules, the latter having, three of them, 
fallen, from being quite unable to keep their feet in 
the clay. We passed them, and soon after lost our 
way, and got into boggy rivers. Fortunately, in the 
silence of the night we heard the muleteers speaking 
to the mules, halloed to them, and soon joined them. 
Once more all together, we pursued our way to Vejer, 
where we arrived at nine o'clock ; at twelve we quite 
gave up poor John, and went to bed. The following 
day at twelve he appeared, and told us that he had 
proceeded half a league beyond Conil the preceding 
night, when losing his way he determined to return to 
Conil. He passed the river prosperously, but on the 
other side, just as he was going to rise the hill (being 
most fortunately himself on foot), his pony sunk up to 
its neck in a quicksand. He in vain endeavoured to help 



72 Gibraltar, February 2ndy 1813. 

him out, and went to the town for assistance. Having 
procured two men and two boys, they with difficulty 
got the poor helpless animal out. John got a little 
bread |and a bed, and joined us, as I have already 
stated, the following day. We found that Tarifa was 
seven leagues from Vejer, and that there was no place 
whatever between, and they told us the roads were 
still worse than those we had come. We therefore 
remained Thursday at Vejer, and replaced the shoes 
our poor beasts had lost in the clay. Friday, as soon 
as it was light, we started, and fortunately arrived at 
Tarifa at half-past six, an hour after dark. We found 
the road horrible in places, but not all the way ; on 
the whole I reckon this one of the most extraordinary 
day's journeys we have performed. Tarifa is a poor 
place, and nothing but the abominable rainy weather 
could have saved it from the French. It is nearly six 
leagues from hence, and the road dreadful ; we there- 
fore only came half-way (to Algeciras) the next day, 
and reached this place on Sunday, the 31st, at one 
o'clock, being the seventh day since we left Cadiz. 
The country from Vejer to Gibraltar is beautiful. The 
rocky mountains, covered with magnificent cork trees, 
and abounding in streams, have a very grand effect. 



Gibraltar y Febrtiary 2ndy 1813. 73 

I believe I forgot to tell you that Commissioner Fraser 
had invited us to be with them when we came to 
Gibraltar. Here, then, John and I are comfortably- 
established in one of the prettiest country houses you 
ever saw, and enjoying all the luxuries of England 
with the southern climate. Clive is at the Lieutenant- 
Governor's, where we all dine to-day. This house is 
situated a mile south of the town, high up on the 
Rock, and in the midst of a delightful garden full of 
violets and geraniums ; the trees are already all bud- 
ding, and will soon afford shade. I am as much 
pleased with Gibraltar Bay as I was disappointed with 
that of Cadiz. This is surrounded with fine moun- 
tains, and the African coast is very bold. The Rock 
itself is most beautiful and curious — it is 1,000 feet 
high. I have seen the Galleries and some other things, 
but I have yet much to see. We are going over, in a 
day or two, to Ceuta and Tetuan. Captain Godby, 
General Campbell's aide-de-camp, who has dogs, and 
knows the country at Tetuan, will go with us, and, 
perhaps, the Commissioner, in whose yacht we are to 
go. I will write again before we leave this place for 
the last of Spain. 

God bless you, &c. &c. 

L 





Gibraltar, 
February ()th, 1 8 1 3. 

E have remained here thus long in hopes 
of the easterly wind changing, and en- 
abling us to go to Tetuan, but it is 
II obstinate. The Commissioner and Cap- 
tain Godby were going with us, but it is not possible 
to land at Tetuan with an easterly wind, on account 
of the surf upon the Bar ; we now have determined, 
John, Clive, and I, to go over to Ceuta to-morrow in 
the CommissioneYs yacht, and he and Captain Godby 
will take us up there on Friday, should the wind be 
favourable, if not, he will send his yacht to bring us 
back, I shall be very sorry to miss Tetuan, both on 
account of the shooting and of seeing a Moorish 
town ; the Moors do not allow anybody to enter their 
territories from Ceuta, which prevents our going from 



Gibraltar, February <^th, 1813. 75 

thence by land. There never was anything so de- 
lightful as the weather ; the first blossoms are beau- 
tiful, and everything has the appearance of spring 
— this is the finest season here — in summer the heat 
is insufferable, it is now as hot as the greater part of 
our summer, and the nights are delightful ; I hope 
the rainy season is almost over. We saw a great deal 
of Sir Montague and Lady Burgoyne here, and I like 
them very much ; he is rather fussy, but very good- 
humoured. Still fine news from Russia ! We have 
received the "Gazettes" of the 17th and 20th Janu- 
ary ; but this letter of Lord Wellington's to the com- 
manding officers of regiments is rather unpleasant. I 
grieve that the army has shown such a total want of 
discipline. Poor Tyrconnell ! how truly grieved I am 
to hear of his death — he was a fine fellow ! We in- 
tend going by Ronda to Malaga, it is three or four 
leagues round, but it is worth seeing — it is a large 
town, situated on a high mountain. The Sierra de 
Ronda is one of the finest ranges of mountains in 
Spain, and is said to contain some magnificent sce- 
nery. The highest and finest mountains of all are 
those of the Sierra Nevada, or Snowy Mountains, to 
the south-east of Granada — they are higher than the j 



76 Gibraltar, Feh'uary lotk, 1813. 

Pyrenees. What a curious scene this place presents 
from the number of different nations one sees in the 
streets ! There are English, Spaniards, Moors, Portu- 
guese, Italians, Genoese, Algerians, Greeks, and 
Jews ; I hear that Malta is much more extraordinary 
in this respect. 

Wednesday y the lotk. — The wind is still east, my 
dearest mother, and we are just embarking for Ceuta, 
where we shall probably be landed in three hours' 
time. I am writing this from the Commissioner's 
Office in the dock yard, while waiting for Clive — he 
is just arrived. 

God bless you, &c., &c. 







Gibraltar, 
February 26th, 1813. 

My dearest Mother, 

HE three inclosed sheets are addressed 
to William Childe,^ but as I think parts 
of them may be interesting to you, es- 
pecially that which relates to our Bar- 
bary excursion, I have sent them open that you may 
read them, after which pray forward them to him. 
We found Wrottesley in the " Sabine," lying in Ceuta 
Bay ; we slept while at Ceuta at a tolerable inn, and 
lived with General Fraser, who commands the troops 
there. Ceuta is a most singular peninsula, with a 
delightful bay, and excellent anchorage for boats and 
shipping ; if ever we are at war with Spain again, it 

' The present W. Lacon Childe, Esq., of Kinlet, Shropshire. 



yS Gibraltar, February 26th, 18 13. 

will be a very desirable thing for us to take, as it 
is far preferable to Gibraltar, and the two together 
would completely command the Straits. We re- 
mained two nights at Ceuta, and the wind not chang- 
ing we returned to Gibraltar with Wrottesley. The 
next day, Saturday, the 1 3th, the wind came round to 
the westward, and the Commissioner, Captain Godby, 
and ourselves, went over to Tetuan in the " Sabine." 
Wrottesley remained on shore with us, and we had a 
very jolly party, but not good sport. We got a miser- 
able room in the Custom House, two miles up the river 
and four from the town. The mountains here are 
very magnificent ; they are part of Mount Atlas, 
which extends hundreds of miles up the country ; we 
lived very well, Captain Godby 's sergeant being a 
good cook ; we got meat, bread, &c., from the town, 
and drinkables we took with us. We had one room 
only for ourselves and another for our servants ; we 
had just space in ours to sling three cots and to put 
our three beds under them ; they were all obliged to 
be taken down before we could put a table for our 
breakfast. Wrottesley brought the Commissioner and 
me home on Friday, and we landed on Saturday 
morning ; the other three were obliged to wait for a 



Gibraltar, February 26th, 181 3. 79 

passport till Sunday ; the two naval officers did not 
require one, and I (being rather unwell and not able 
to shoot again) contrived to smuggle myself on 
board. We go from hence to-morrow. 

God bless you, &c., &c. 



Inclosed in the above. 

Here we arej nearly seven months after leaving Eng- 
land, although when we sailed, on the 4th of August, we 
imagined we were coming immediately to this place. 
You will have heard from my mother of our having 
quitted the fleet off the coast of Portugal, and gone 
in a merchant schooner to Oporto, where we dis- 
embarked on the 25th of August, after a tiresome 
long passage of three weeks ; since this we have 
travelled a great number of leagues in the Peninsula, 
and seen a great deal of the people in all situations. 
The Spanish peasantry and the minor gentry, who are 
not placemen, are a very fine people ; the former 
(were it not for a lamentable indolence which reigns 
throughout Spain to a most incredible degree) would 
in my opinion be the finest people in the universe ;, 



8o Gibraltar, Febrtt^ary 26ihj 1813. 

the grandees are not near so bad as by many they 
have been represented ; five-sixths of them have 
followed the patriotic party, and have borne their 
poverty and deprivations with wonderful patience and 
fortitude. Of those few who have followed El Rey 
Pepe (as they mockingly call Joseph here) most of 
them have been compelled by force, and would be de- 
lighted to escape the first opportunity ; many did 
escape to Cadiz on the late hasty evacuation of the 
capital by Joseph. They have all for generations been 
kept in a state of ignorance and want of common 
education almost incredible, by the cursed government 
which this poor country has so long suffered under ; 
this will naturally cause all their actions to be weak, 
and weakness appears to me their greatest fault. 
Now I come to the worst class of Spaniards — the 
placemen — these are to the last degree despicable. 
From the lowest wretches in the municipalities to the 
heads of the government almost, there is scarcely a 
mean act under the sun that they will not perform to 
put a dollar into their pockets. The Portuguese are 
a kind hospitable people, but most despicably servile, 
and the greatest cheats and thieves in the world, and 
will do anything for a bribe ; their peasantry have 



Gibraltar, February 26tk, 1813. 81 

not one grain of that beautiful nobleness of character 
and strict honour which is so striking in that of 
Spain ; nor are the manners of the upper orders in 
Portugal to be mentioned with those of Spain. The 
dress of the Spanish ladies is characteristic and 
beautiful, that of the Portuguese frightful, being bad 
imitations of the most vulgar English dresses ; there 
are vast numbers of rather pretty women in Spain, 
but I don't think I have seen above two or three very 
pretty, and certainly not one beautiful ; they have 
excessively pretty figures, beautiful feet, and a most 
graceful carriage, they are good - humoured, great 
coquettes, quick, and lively, but without a grain of 
modesty or of fine feeling ; they are pleasant com- 
panions to a passing traveller, but I never saw one for 
whom I could feel the slightest interest. The dress 
of the peasantry in many parts of Spain is peculiar, 
ornamental, gay, and pretty ; in Portugal the women 
are generally ugly, and the dress of all classes fright- 
ful ; the manners, too, of the ladies are very vulgar 
and disagreeable — they have not the liveliness, quick- 
ness, nor grace of the Spanish. The Portuguese 
language, owing to their pronunciation, is frightful ; 
the Spanish, beautiful. The Spanish men are some- 

M 



82 Gibraltar, February 2(^th, 1813. 

times agreeable, but they have not the liveliness 
or good - nature of the ladies. The greater part 
of the time we have been in the Peninsula we 
have been moving about, but we were ten days in 
Oporto, and six weeks at Cadiz, where we saw all 
the society there is ; indeed, we were very fortu- 
nate, for while we were at the former place, Mare- 
chal Beresford arrived there, the greatest man in 
Portugal ; and while at Cadiz we had Lord Wel- 
lington, one of the greatest in Spain ; there is very 
little society, and that little is dull. There is a pretty 
theatre at Cadiz, and a tolerable set of actors ; I went 
every night to the play, and I was delighted with the 
national dances, of which they have several ; they say 
that in good times there is excellent society in Madrid, 
and a great deal of gaiety and magnificence. Alas ! 
poor people, the latter is now totally out of their 
reach, and for the former they have but little inclina- 
tion. The army and navy abuse the poor Spaniards 
without mercy, and would give up the cause ; but I 
can faithfully say that from the observations I have 
been able to make (and I have travelled over a great 
deal of Spain, and lived among all classes of people), 
I am fully persuaded they are inveterate enemies to 



Gibraltar, February 26 tk, 181 3. 2>i 

the French, to whom they will 7tever tamely bow, and 
that they are as grateful and attached to us as their 
native pride and jealousy will allow them ; moreover, 
that if ever they are fortunate enough to fall under a 
good government, they will make all the exertions we 
can wish. The hearts of the people are firm and immut- 
able ; they have borne severe and most trying hard- 
ships without complaint, and will continue to do so, 
and they are ready to serve their country in any way 
they may be ordered ; but a great machine cannot 
move without wheels, and they have no government 
that can or will organize them. You probably know 
of our ill-luck in not being able to reach Madrid. We 
met Hill's army on its retreat when within nine leagues 
(thirty-six miles) of that place ; with this exception 
we have been fortunate, and have seen a great deal. 
We are just returned from Africa, where we have been 
on a shooting party at Tetuan. The country is ex- 
cessively wild, and the walking very severe, and a 
great part of it up to the knees in marshes. I got 
rather too much of it, and was a little unwell for two 
or three days, but I am quite well again. There are a 
great many partridges there ; they are red-legged, but 
larger and more beautiful than the French. We were 



84 Gibraltar, February 26th, 181 3. 

too late in the season, and had not very good sport ; 
the weather is much like our fine September weather, 
but the sun more scorching. The Moors are a strange 
set of savages ; they have both a contempt and a 
hatred for Christians which is surprising ; but they 
like the English much better than any others — some 
few of them are really fond of us : they abhor the 
French and Spaniards. You cannot stir without a 
Moorish soldier, for they shoot at you through their 
rush hedges. Tetuan is a large town, and capital of a 
province, but a mean, dirty place, and totally without 
regularity. There are seven hundred Jews there, who 
live in a separate quarter of the town. The manner 
in which the Moors treat these poor exiles is perfectly 
shocking — the meanest Moorish boy may murder them 
with impunity ; and a Jew dare not even frown at one 
of them. The Moorish women may not be seen if 
they walk out ; their faces, all but their eyes, are 
covered. The Jewesses are, some of them, very 
pretty; their dress is much ornamented, but unbe- 
coming. The dress of the Moors of both sexes is very 
simple, generally a single garment of white linen, 
which covers the head and all in the men, and comes 
nearly to the knees ; they have short drawers of the 



Gibraltar, February itth, 1813. 85 

same, yellow or red slippers, and no stockings. The 
women's garments come rather below the knee, and 
they wear a frightful flapping straw hat. The situa- 
tion of this place, i. e. Gibraltar, is very beautiful — the 
Bay, the Rock, and opposite mountains of Barbary, 
far exceed my expectations. The town of Gibraltar 
is bad and ugly ; the fortifications, particularly the 
galleries in the Rock, are beautiful, but the latter 
appear most absurd and useless ; it is impossible the 
soldiers should ever bear the smoke and noise of 
firing them. We have seen some beautiful scenery in 
the north of Portugal. It is a very romantic, moun- 
tainous country, and the Spanish chestnuts there are 
quite magnificent — they exceed even our finest oak 
woods in size and beauty. It abounds also in arbutus, 
the finest heath, ten feet high, and some fine oaks, a 
great deal of rocky scenery, and the finest, clearest 
mountain rivers. The valleys are uncommonly rich 
in the province of Minho, covered with Indian corn. 
The number of streams preserve a constant coolness 
and verdure. South of the Douro the country is 
much more arid, and the mountain scenery is some- 
times excessively grand. I have not seen Lisbon and 
its environs, which I lament very much, but my com- 



86 Gibralta7% February 26th, 18 13. 

panions willed otherwise. The greater part of what I 
have seen of Spain is an ugly, uninteresting country, 
and most tiresome to travel over — there are immense 
parched plains, without a single bush to break the 
view. We appear now to have got into a prettier 
country, but there is no freshness — the finest trees they 
have are the corks, and they are very sombre. Seville 
is a fine city, full of handsome public buildings, but 
the French have destroyed numbers of them ; the 
cathedral, supposed to be the finest in the world, is 
uninjured. I never saw anything so beautiful as the 
interior — it is immensely large ; I could spend half 
my life in admiring it. There are some beautiful pic- 
tures, but the finest in Seville were in a convent, 
painted by Murillo — these the French have robbed it 
of. Salamanca is one of the most melancholy exam- 
ples of French barbarity you can well imagine. The 
French have never injured any of the cathedrals fur- 
ther than taking away the fine pictures ; that of 
Salamanca is therefore unhurt, and is a fine building ; 
but of twenty-four colleges and the same number of 
convents, seventeen colleges and about a dozen con- 
vents are levelled, and the remainder bare walls with- 
out roofs, excepting two or three convents of nuns. 



Gibraltar, February 26/^, 1813. 87 

These buildings were all of stone, and of very fine or- 
namented architecture. Salamanca must have been 
one of the most beautiful towns in the world — it is 
now a melancholy heap of ruins. Burgos is a fine 
town. The cathedral is very beautiful; it is the 
second finest in Spain. It is infinitely smaller than 
that at Seville, but the exterior is much more beautiful. 
There are many interesting Roman remains in this 
country. The aqueduct at Segovia, which is still per- 
fect, and supplies the city, is the most beautiful work 
I ever beheld ; that, and the bridge of Alcantara, ex- 
ceed all I could have imagined ; the latter is built over 
the Tagus, where it rolls its full waters over rocks in 
a deep, narrow bed ; the banks are bare rocks, and 
nearly perpendicular to an astonishing height. We 
are just going to resume our journey. We go to 
Malaga and Granada, thence to Cordova, and after- 
wards through Murcia to Cartagena and Alicante ; 
there (unless Lord Wellington will open some more of 
Spain to us) we shall embark for Sicily. 





Granada, 
April 14/^, 181 3. 

My Dearest Mother, 

LIVE intends sending a letter home from 
hence, through the embassy at Cadiz, 
and this will go with his. John, I believe, 
wrote a few lines from hence last month. 
He has now left us, and we two have returned here 
without him. But I will go regularly through our 
proceedings since we left Malaga, where I wrote you 
a letter through Commissioner Fraser, which I hope 
you will have received.* We left Malaga on the 7th 
of March, and came straight here by Velez, Malaga, 
and Alhama. We remained here about a week, 
during which we were much surprised at the weather ; 



' This letter has not yet reached me. — L. E. B. 



Granada, April i^thy 1813. 89 

for the day after our arrival we had a great deal of snow, 
and the cold continued excessive for the whole week. 
All the smaller streams were stopped and completely 
frozen up, and as we had no fireplaces or glass 
windows, I never suffered from cold so much in my 
life. This weather, you may imagine, astonished us 
not a little in this southern latitude, but it proceeds 
from the vicinity of Granada to the Sierra Nevada (or 
Snowy Sierra) mountains, so very high that they are 
covered with perpetual snow. The winters here are, 
in consequence, very severe, but the months of May 
and June quite heavenly — the country is beautiful, 
especially in those months. The town is very large, 
and situated on the sides of low hills at the north-west 
foot of the Sierra, and to the west there is a fine plain, 
watered by the river Genal, and irrigated, so that it is 
a perfect garden of riches. It is called the Vega (or 
large field) of Granada, and is encompassed on all 
sides with mountains of different heights and shapes. 
The Alhambra (the famous Moorish palace here) is 
quite beautiful. The exterior of this palace is 
miserable, but the moment you enter the gate the 
workmanship of the pillars, arches, floors, walls, and 
ceilings of the courts and apartments exceeds in 

N 



90 Granada, April \/^th, 1813. 

minuteness and delicacy all that I could have 
imagined. It is the prettiest enchanting sight I ever 
saw, but has no pretensions to magnificence ; it is 
much too finical and minute for that. The court 
which is so famous and so much admired, called the 
Court of the Lions, is quite small, but contains nearly 
one hundred and fifty marble pillars. A stream of 
water, with fountains, runs the length of it, and in the 
centre is a large basin of white marble, of one single 
piece, supported by twelve strange animals intended 
for lions. The style of this palace and its singular 
beauties are by me quite indescribable, being unlike 
anything else I know ; but the incalculable time and 
labour they must have taken is wonderful. Charles 
the Fifth did a great deal to this palace to preserve it, 
and he also began one in the Grecian architecture 
close to it, which would, if finished, have been quite 
beautiful ; but he did not even complete the masonry 
of it entirely. It is by far the prettiest Grecian archi- 
tecture I ever saw. The exterior is square and the 
court circular, having a cloister supported by a regular 
colonnade of thirty-two marble pillars of the Ionic 
order, and a corridor above with the same number 
in the Composite order. The doorways and other 



. Granada, April \\thy 1813. 91 

parts of the building are of different marbles, and 
the rest of fine stone, beautifully worked. There 
are also many basso-relievos of battles on marble. 
There is a convent, a priory, and several other build- 
ings on the same hill with the palace, covering alto- 
gether a considerable extent, and the whole sur- 
rounded with a regular Moorish wall. The whole 
enclosure is called the Alhambra, and is a very 
striking feature from the town and its environs. 
The cathedral of Granada is a very fine Grecian 
building, and though much ill-treated with the gilding 
and daubing of the good Catholics of this bigoted 
country, yet it has many specimens of marbles, and 
some tolerable sculptures and pictures, to boast of, 
and altogether has a grand and venerable appearance : 
connected with it, and of much older date, is the 
Royal Chapel, a fine old Gothic building, erected by 
King Ferdinand the Catholic, on taking this city from 
the Moors. It contains two magnificent tombs, of the 
most beautiful sculpture I ever beheld, and entirely 
of white marble ; one is the tomb of Ferdinand and 
Isabella, the Catholics, and the other of Philip the 
First and Joanna. We were treated in Granada with 
very great civility, and one of the ladies to whom we 



92 Granada, April i^th, 1813. 

brought letters gave us a ball. We went from hence 
on the 17th, and reached Cordova on the 20th ; it is 
a large but ill-built town, in a beautifully rich country. 
We were fortunate enough to stay there on a Sun- 
day, and we went to the Paseo (public walk), which is 
the prettiest I ever saw. The weather was heavenly 
(for as soon as we had got a few leagues from Gra- 
nada we left the cold behind us), and this walk being 
situated between the town and the foot of the Sierra 
Morena, and crowded with beautiful women most 
beautifully dressed, and the surrounding country being 
a perfect garden, I hardly ever witnessed so gay a 
scene. The cathedral at Cordova is exceedingly 
curious, being an immense Moorish mosque, contain- 
ing nearly six hundred pillars, mostly of marble. This 
is the only mosque left in Spain, and they have built 
a choir and altar in the centre of bad Gothic, which, 
being high, and the rest of the building very 
low and square, added to the multitude of tawdry 
gilded chapels peeping under the Moorish horse-shoe 
arches, altogether has the most singular appearance 
imaginable ; this mosque is very large, but not hand- 
some. From Cordova we went on the great Madrid 
road by Andujar, Baylen, Carolina, and Santa Cruz, 



Granada, April \\th, 1813. 93 

as far as Valdepefias in La Mancha. We had then 
great hopes of reaching Madrid, but the French in 
small parties still continued to watch the Tagus, and 
we determined to go to Almaden (about seventy or 
eighty miles to our westward), in order to pass a little 
time. Almaden is situated near the north of the 
Sierra Morena, immediately above Cordova, and is 
famous for its quicksilver mines — except one in Ger- 
many and one in South America, I fancy these of the 
Sierra Morena are the only known ones in the world, 
and that of Almaden is much the largest and richest of 
any. We descended nearly three hundred yards into 
it by perpendicular ladders, and with lamps, and a 
most curious sight it was. There are four other mines 
in different parts of this Sierra, but this of Almaden 
is the only one at present worked. It was known in 
the time of the Romans, and is mentioned slightly by 
Pliny. It used to send annually to Cadiz (to be 
shipped for America, to work the silver mines there), 
from twenty to twenty-four thousand quintals (or 
hundredweights) of pure quicksilver. The mine is 
calculated to be worth 80,000,000 of reals an- 
nually, which, reckoning four dollars to the pound, 
equals 1, 000,000 sterling ; the annual expenses to be 



94 Granada, April i \th, 1 8 1 3. 

subtracted were 1,500,000 reals. Spain has also a 
contract for the produce of the Hungary mine, which 
produces 12,000 quintals annually. This is shipped in 
Trieste, and likewise sent to America. Only think of 
the indolence of this nation — preferring to purchase 
quicksilver from Austria to working their other, or 
rather one or two of their other smaller mines. The 
ore contains sulphur and quicksilver, and the richest 
(of which they have a great quantity) contains three 
parts out of four of the latter. It is a beautiful vermilion 
colour, and the paint is made by a very simple process 
— the pure quicksilver is reimpregnated with sulphur, 
which reduces it to a hard stone, this is ground to a 
fine powder, which is the vermilion paint. The quick- 
silver itself is extracted from the ore very simply in 
ovens, and with a very inconsiderable heat the sulphur 
evaporates, and the quicksilver fuses and rises to the 
top of the oven and runs off into large clay tubes, 
where it is retained till it cools ; for were it to be 
exposed to the air while warm, such is its volatility, 
that much would escape and be lost. I know not if 
this account will be at all interesting to you, my dear 
mother, but I have written it as it may be so to some- 



Granada, April \\th, 1813. 95 

body, my kind friend Mr. Chap.,* for instance, to whom 
I always would be most kindly remembered. The ore 
is not found in veins, but in what they term hancoSy 
or banks. These are irregular veins, not running 
straight, and the same bank varying in width from 
two to fifteen yards. They almost always lie ob- 
liquely, ascending to the east and descending to the 
west. The ore is likewise found in immense solid, un- 
connected blocks of fifteen or twenty yards' diameter. 
I have said more about this quicksilver mine on 
account of the rarity of them. This is Government 
property ; and although, as you may imagine, it is 
destruction in a very short time to the constitutions 
of these poor miners, yet they are miserably paid. 
Nevertheless they never have a want of workmen. 
Mineralogy brings into my head good Mr. Dickenson.^ 
I hope he enjoys the same health and even spirits 
which his regular habits and benevolent mind so 
justly merit ; give him my kindest remembrance when 
you see him. After seeing the mine of Almaden, and 

^ The Rev. Mr. Chappelow, private chaplain to Lord Bradford. 
' The Rev. Mr. Dickenson, author of a work on the " Natural 
History of Staffordshire." 



96 Granada, April i \th, 1 8 1 3 . 

finding the French did not continue their retreat, 
John Russell, my strange cousin, and your ladyship's 
mad nephew, determined to execute a plan which he 
had often threatened, but it appeared to Clive and 
me so very injudicious a one that we never had an 
idea of his putting it into execution. However, the 
evening previous to our leaving Almaden, he said, 
" Well, I shall go to the army to see William,' and I 
will meet you either at Madrid or Alicante." We 
found he was quite serious, and he then informed us 
of his intentions. He said he should stay the next 
day at Almaden to sell his pony and buy something 
bigger. He would not take his servant, but ordered 
him to leave out half-a-dozen changes of linen, and 
his gun loaded. He was dressed in a blue great-coat, 
overalls and boots, a cocked hat, and sword ; and 
literally took nothing else except his dressing-case, a 
pair of pantaloons and shoes, a journal and an account- 
book, pens and ink, and a bag of money. He would 
not carry anything to reload his gun, which he said 
his principal reason for taking was to sell, should he 



' Lord George William Russell, aide-de-camp to the Duke of 
Wellington. 



Granada, April id^th, 1813. 97 

be short of money (for we had too little to spare him 
any). The next morning he sold his pony, bought a 
young horse, and rode the first league with us. Here 
we parted with each other with real regret, and poor 
John seemed to feel rather forlorn. God grant he 
may have reached head-quarters in safety and health, 
for he had been far from well the last few days he was 
with us. He returned to Almaden, there to purchase 
some leathern bags to carry his clothes, and he was 
to start the following morning. Clive and I feel fully 
persuaded that we shall see him no more till we re- 
turn to England. We came back to this place by 
Cordova ; our road from Almaden to Cordova was 
about seventy miles, and entirely through the Sierra 
Morena. This Sierra is a most singular range of 
mountains. It is not high in any part, nor ever re- 
tains snow upon it ; but it is of immense extent, being 
one perfectly unbroken range from the borders of the 
kingdom of Murcia to those of Portugal on the Gua- 
diana, and great part of it one hundred miles in breadth. 
Our road through it, from Almaden, was nothing but 
the track of beasts of burthen, and for thirty or forty 
miles it lay through the wildest mountains you can 
imagine, and a constant ascent or descent in this dis- 

o 



98 Granada, April \/[th, 1813. 

tance. We passed one poor village, where we slept, 
and, except this, it was a perfect desert, where here 
and there we met a few donkeys laden. Some parts 
were covered only with low shrubs, so common in this 
country, the rest was a pine forest ; but when we 
arrived on the southern ridge of the Sierra, I never 
beheld so magnificent, so enchanting a scene. Our- 
selves still in this forest of pines, we beheld Cordova 
in its golden valley immediately below us, and sur- 
rounded by kitchen gardens, olive grounds, convents, 
and country houses. Beyond the river, hills covered 
with green corn, and in the distance, to the south- 
west, the mountains towards Granada and Jaen topped 
with snow ; had but these corn-hills had our hedge- 
rows, nothing would have been wanting. We de- 
scended from the Sierra by rugged winding paths in 
this pine forest, the ground covered with shrubs, the 
laurustinus in profusion and in full bloom, and the 
whole extent enamelled with cistus — there were four 
sorts in bloom, three white, and the fourth a beautiful 
purple. Notwithstanding the great length of time it 
took us to descend, I never felt more regret in my life 
than on reaching the bottom, and leaving behind me 
this enchanting garden of nature. I think (and sin- 



Granada, April 1 4M, 1 8 1 3 . 99 

cerely hope) the picture of it will ever be before my 
eyes in its liveliest colours. We reached this place 
for the second time last Sunday, the nth, and we are 
staying here to rest our animals and see the Easter 
gaieties. About Wednesday we shall start for Car- 
tagena, where we shall pass two or three days, and 
then proceed by Murcia to Alicante, always providing 
that the moment the French are good enough to 
evacuate Madrid, we take the direct road there. If, 
on reaching Alicante, Madrid is still occupied by the 
enemy, we shall embark for Minorca and Sicily. 
Some bad news arrived here yesterday from the east, 
but they seem to know no particulars ; the wise news- 
mongers are looking very black, and rather insinuate 
against our Alicante army. All I can learn is, that 
part of our army has been surprised and cut off by a 
corps of 8,000 from Suchet's — this General Murray 
did not prevent ; whether he could have done so, or 
cotdd noty remains to be proved — Elio should take care 
of his own, and not Murray. On our return here we 
found the air still sharp and keen, but since the change 
of the moon on Thursday, it has been very hot ; the 
summer is now setting in, and in the plains of Murcia 
we shall be fried alive. 



lOO Granada, April 20th, 181 3. 

April 20th. — Clive wished not to send his letter till 
to-day, that he might write word to his friends at 
Cadiz the event of the elections of deputies for this 
kingdom to the new Cortes, which is appointed to 
meet in October next ; the kingdom of Granada sends 
ten. I cannot inform you whether the event has been 
satisfactory or no to the patriots in this particular 
instance, but I grieve to say that, speaking generally 
of Spain, the clergy are making immense efforts, and 
have gained great power again over the minds of the 
weak and beatos (or devotees), and there is much 
reason to fear that if they can obtain many votes, they 
will re-establish that dreadful tribunal of the Inquisi- 
tion. If they should succeed, this poor unhappy 
country, after all it has already suffered, must un- 
avoidably experience the scenes of a bloody revolu- 
tion ; for the body of the nation abhor the Inquisition, 
and as it has once been abolished, they will never 
tamely submit to its re-establishment. We leave this 
place to-morrow for Cartagena. 

&c. &c. 



Alicante, 
May \2thy 1813. 



My Dearest Mother, 




HAVE several letters to thank you for, 

and to acknowledge 

Since I wrote to you from Granada we 
have seen little that has been interesting ; 
the country thence to the entrance of the kingdom of 
Murcia is dreary and miserable. Lorca and Carta- 
gena have fine olive and corn plains — the latter has 
a nice little bay, and the naval arsenal is very hand- 
some, compact, and commodious ; at present it is quite 
deserted. Murcia itself is a fine town, and has a 
cathedral altogether handsome, but very irregular in 
architecture ; the huerta (or garden) of Murcia, as it 
is called, which is an irrigated valley of from twenty 
to thirty miles long from west to east, and perhaps 



I02 Alicante, May 12///, 181 3. 

ten broad, sheltered to the north and south by two 
rows of low mountains, is the richest spot of ground, 
perhaps, in the universe, certainly in the Peninsula ; 
the greater part is corn, the crops of which exceeded 
in luxuriance anything I ever beheld. Amongst the 
corn, mulberry trees are thickly planted, beneath 
whose shade the corn was quite as fine as where ex- 
posed to the sun ; the rest is planted with orange trees, 
whence all this part of Spain is supplied with the fruit. 
The fragrance of their flowers scented the whole 
atmosphere ; the barley was ripe, and some of it cut, 
and the wheat nearly ripe. Lucern grows here in the 
greatest profusion, and yields a crop nearly every 
month of the year. Grass of all sorts grows here most 
luxuriantly, which seems very strange in this burning 
climate, but it must be owing to the irrigation and to 
the shade afforded by the mulberry trees. Immense 
quantities of silk is made here, and in the town there 
is a royal manufactory. This valley continues with 
the same luxuriance of production eastward towards 
the sea, and there it is called the Huerta de Orihuela, 
but how far that extends I know not. Alicante is a 
vile, detestable place ; the people of the kingdom of 
Valencia are the worst in Spain — they are an ill- 



Alicante, May 12/^, 1 813. 103 

affected, selfish, grumbling race ; their language is an 
ugly mixture of French and old Spanish, though they 
understand the Castilian ; they are very sulky, and 
unaccommodating to the English, by whom, in return, 
they are detested. Our army here seems to be full of 
misunderstandings and party, but I cannot dive into 
the truth ; one party blames General Murray violently 
for not having followed up the repulse of the French 
at Castalla, whom they say we might have destroyed. 
The hot weather seems to have set in, and exercise 
begins to be rather oppressive, except in the mornings 
and evenings. The mosquitos begin to swarm, and 
the first night I arrived, sleeping without a mos- 
quito net, I was so bit round the eyes, that the 
swelling made me half blind ; but the net com- 
pletely keeps them off ; by the bye, I fancied 
mosquitos a great deal larger than our gnat, but I 
find they are the identical same, only that there are 
more of them, and the bite is sharper in these 
hot climates ; that of the common fly here is dread- 
fully sharp, and as they crawl (which the mosquitos 
do not) no net can keep them off. I think I men- 
tioned in Oporto how much the flies worried us there. 
I don't think I have yet mentioned the day of our 



I04 Alicante, May \2th, 1813. 

arrival here, which was the 7th ; our animals all 
lasted out the journey ; though of the horses my 
little tough mountaineer alone remains uninjured, the 
other three are all quite done for ; the mules are all 
sound but one, which has a splint and swelled leg 
from work ; however, from the excessive low price of 
animals here, through fear of embargo, we are only to 
get $250 for these four mules, which cost us $630. I 
get $15 for my pony, which cost me |6o. Clive has 
given his away ; and the servants' horses may fetch 
$20 together. I wish you could see my pony, he is a 
bay, about 12 hands high, 5^ feet long, with a mane 
reaching half way to the ground, his tail is docked 
by the Portigooses (othen\' ise Portuguese) in supposed 
imitation of the English. The numbers of people 
now in this wretched town (owing to numbers having 
entered for safety from the French, and others from a 
large suburb which was pulled down for the sake of 
defence), in addition to the army, is something as- 
tonishing, and there is no getting a room anywhere ; 
I am in a miserable one at the house of our Consul, 
Mr. Attey, the dirt of which, and of his family 
(Spanish) exceeds all I ever beheld, but he is very 
kind and civil, and thinks it all perfection. Clive has 



Alicante, May i2tk, 1813. 105 

a room in the house of M. Roselt, a merchant, where 
I come and sit. They say the Duque del Parque's 
army (formerly Ballesteros's) is on its march to join 
Elio's in Murcia and Valencia, and that Murray's is 
to go to Catalufia ; ours has a great deal of sickness, 
especially agues, and the hospitals here are full. 
Several officers of the Sicilian troops (Austrians they 
say) have resigned, and are returning disgusted with 
the inactivity of this army ; in short, from its harle- 
quin composition, parties, and misunderstandings, I 
fear little can ever be expected from it. Parque, too, 
is an old woman, and no soul, Spanish or English, 
places a grain of confidence in him. Report says, 
Ballesteros through the medium of Lord Wellington 
is returning to take the command of that army, a 
complete penitent ; he is excessively popular with the 
soldiers and peasantry, but though he has undoubted 
courage, loves his country, and never spares himself, 
yet from being entirely without education, he is unfit 
for an independent command ; with a brigade, and 
even a division, and under the orders of a good general, 
I believe he would acquit himself well, but ambi- 
tion in his uneducated mind destroys his judg- 
ment, and, of course, all his little merits. Elio is 

P 



io6 Alicante, May \2th, 1813. 

well spoken of, and I believe a fair general, but 
he is unprovisioned, and unassisted by his Govern- 
ment, and when he endeavours to draw provisions 
forcibly from the country he occupies, to which 
he is compelled by necessity and the neglect of 
his Government, these same idle fellows severely re- 
primand him for breaking the constitution. The 
Spanish battalions lost previous to the battle of 
Castalla, were obliged to surrender in their garrisons 
of Villena and Yecla, from not having literally a day's 
provisions. Henry O'Donnell, who commands the 
Army of Reserve in Seville, is a fine fellow and a 
good soldier. That army is well clothed, and they 
are a fine body of men, I think 12,000. Castafios is 
a good sort of old fellow, and amazingly popular 
among the Spaniards, but his merits as an officer are 
imaginary, and his fame entirely acquired by a series 
of extraordinary good fortune. He deserves just as 
much merit from the battle of Baylen as I do ; and it 
is the same in all other instances ; he himself, per- 
sonally commanding, never did anything. Mina, in 
the north, is a fine fellow, the only clever man who 
has shown himself by the Revolution ; he was, they 
say, a blacksmith, and certainly was very low in life, 
then a guerilla, and now a Mariscal de Campo (Major 



Alicante, May 12//^, 1813. 107 

General), and second in command of Mendizabel's 
army. If he ever rises to the independent command 
of an army, probably he may lose himself, like Balle- 
steros. Lacy, who is gone to command the army of 
Galicia, is well spoken of. He was in the French 
service, and being ill-treated, came over to the 
Spaniards, his countrymen. All these Spanish armies, 
as they are called, amount together to a small num- 
ber : they are generally ill-clothed, worse appointed, 
and still worse officered. The only effective corps 
are, I believe, Whittingham's and Roche's — perhaps 
10,000 ; O'Donnell's reserve of 12,000 ; and one or two 
regiments raised and drilled by Doyle — these last are 
extremely good. This is what I have been enabled 
to collect during my tour through Spain, and as far 
as I can judge, it is the truth, but I may be deceived. 
The Catalans are a noble people — the perseverance of 
their guerilla parties has been truly surprising. I 
enclose a plan of the bridge of Alcantara ; it is a bad 
one, and will give you very little idea of the grandeur 
of its appearance, being simply an elevation intended 
for scientific persons ; however, you may like to see it. 
I have translated the explanations. I don't know yet 
when we shall go from hence. 

&c., &c. 




'■k^Mf 


E 


1 





Alicante, 
yune Tth, 1813. 

WROTE you a letter from hence, my 
dearest mother, begun soon after our 
arrival, and continued for several days. I 
filled several sheets of paper to you, and 
sent a good many letters through my father to other 
people ; but as I know these letters were on board 
the *' Malta" when she sailed a week ago with the ex- 
pedition to Tarragona, probably this letter will reach 
you first. We had given up all hopes of Madrid, and 
had made up our minds to take the first opportunity 
that might occur to Mahon. None, however, offering 
for a long time, Madrid again haunted us as the time 
of Lord Wellington's advance drew nearer. Vague 
reports came here a few days ago that the capital was 



Alicante, June ytk, 1813. 109 

evacuated on the night of the 27th ult., and entered 
the following day by Empecinado and his Spaniards, 
which was all confirmed yesterday ; and we shall start 
on Saturday for our long wished-for goal. We intend 
to go with very little baggage. We shall hire two 
calesas, and buy two horses. We shall take our two 
servants, which, with the Spaniards who drive the 
calesas, make six persons. In Madrid we shall 
once more join John, who I hope we shall keep 
steady in future. We shall leave his servant here 
with our luggage, and get the consul, Mr. Attey, 
to send him with it to Mahon in a merchant vessel 
or transport. We shall stay at Madrid about a 
fortnight, then go to see the Escurial, Toledo, and 
Aranjuez, and return to the east coast to embark. 
We hope that Valencia will then be open. We have 
no news from the expedition yet ; they sailed on the 
31st ult. Immediately on our troops quitting Cas- 
talla, and coming here to embark, Suchet began his 
march northward with great part of his troops to meet 
us wherever we may go, leaving 10,000 to watch the 
Spaniards under Parque — 4,000 of which are since 
gone ; but Parque with his 25,000 has not dared to 
attack them : however, they say he has been waiting 



I lo Alicante, June yth, 1813. 

for provisions, and is now about to advance ; if the 
French resist him, I dare say they will thrash him ; 
moreover they have behind them a very strong pass, 
between Albaida (their advanced post) and San 
Felipe; thence they can only be driven by being 
turned at Fuente de Higuera ; however, with Parque's 
immense superiority of numbers, he must indeed be 
an old woman if he cannot turn them. Never were 
poor mortals so dead sick of a place, as Clive and I 
are of this insufferable, stupid, filthy town ; and our 
spirits are quite enlivened at the thoughts of our trip 
to Madrid. John Cobb has had a slight attack of 
fever. I find he had a similar one last year in Lon- 
don, which I never knew of, and a very trifling one at 
Badajoz ; this last attack was more considerable, and 
he was unwell for three or four days, but is now quite 
set up again ; just as he was recovering I had a little 
attack of cholera morbus, but I have had no return of 
it since the first day, and I am also well again ; how- 
ever, I look to leaving this oven, and to change of 
air and exercise, as necessary to re-establish us com- 
pletely. Clive, even, does not prosper here entirely, 
although he has had no real complaint. Our letters 
from Madrid will be written in a very different tone ; 



i 



Alicante, June '/thy 1813, 



III 



we shall be eight days on our journey, and hope to 
reach that place on the 17th or i8th. I have received 
three letters from you. 

&c., &c. 






Madrid, 
June ytthy 1813. 

ERE, at last, we are all three arrived. 
Clive and I reached it on the 19th, and 
found John had anticipated us by some 
days — nearly a fortnight. There is but 
one other Englishman, whose name is Bonar — no great 
shakes, but of course we live a good deal together. 
He was the first Englishman that entered the place, 
being here five or six days before John. Our journey 
from Alicante was without incident, and we performed 
it according to the agreement I mentioned in my last 
letter from thence, in eight days. We soon perceived 
we had left that suffocating climate, were delighted 
more than I can describe to find ourselves again 
amongst the dear Castilians, and to hear once more 
their pure and beautiful language. We had a fine re- 



Madrid, June -^olk, 1813. 113 

freshing air the last six days, and arrived here with 
our strength and spirits perfectly recruited. I was 
rather disappointed in the beauty of this town, having 
heard it so extravagantly extolled ; but all I have 
ever heard of the patriotism, good feeling, and enchant- 
ing manners of its inhabitants, fell far short of what 
I found them to be — I firmly believe them to be the 
first set of people on the face of the earth. The popu- 
larity of the English exceeds anything I could have 
conceived. We cannot stir without the blessings of 
the people; everywhere our ears are saluted with 
" Viva Inglaterra ! " " Vivan los Ingleses ! " &c., &c. 
Even the ladies, whose superior situation in life prevents 
their expressing themselves thus, make their children 
repeat these sentences. Oh ! how proud does all this 
make me feel of my country ! — the champion of the 
world against the insatiable ambition and brutal tyranny 
of Napoleon and his host of slaves ! A very few days 
after our arrival the news came of the battle of Vittoria. 
For three days the town was illuminated, the TeDeum 
was sung in all the churches, the regiment of Don 
Juan Martin, the Empecinado, quartered here, fired 
feux dejoie, and the happiness of the people was ex- 
cessive ; the whole population passed the greater part 

Q 



1 1 4 Madrid, Jime yoth, 1 8 1 3. 

of the three nights in the streets, the lower orders 
dancing, and singing patriotic songs ; the women 
almost devoured us in the streets. The poverty and 
misery here exceeds, I think, all I have before seen ; 
but the poorest beggars seemed to forget their misery 
and their hunger, in the recovery of their freedom, and 
the successes of their country — indeed, their joy 
seemed almost to exceed that of the other classes. I 
am all admiration, on seeing this defenceless town, 
which has not a wall so good as the poorest garden 
wall in England, to recollect that these rashly 
patriotic people could defend themselves for a single 
instant against Bonaparte, and his immense army ; it 
seems to me that a Holkham shooting party with 
their fourteen double-barrelled guns, would be able to 
level this wall to the ground. Two bull-fights have 
been allowed in consequence of our late victory — the 
first took place last Sunday, and I suppose the other 
will be next Sunday. On account of the want of 
cavalry horses, they were not permitted to use any, as 
horses sometimes lose their lives in these fights ; of 
course, therefore, we had it not in perfection ; more- 
over, notwithstanding the mad passion of the 
Spaniards for this amusement, such is the poverty 



Madrid, June ^othy 1 8 1 3. 115 

of Madrid, that few persons were able to pay for a 
seat, the amphitheatre was therefore not half filled ; 
however, the scene was very gay and pretty. One 
bull only out of the ten was allowed to be killed, on 
account of the scarcity of meat : this was most unskil- 
fully performed, so that the poor animal suffered a 
good deal ; but if well done by a skilful Matador (as 
the man is called) the death is instantaneous ; and as 
the person seldom fails, I do not think these much 
talked of bull-fights are so cruel as they seem to be to 
those who have not seen them, although they cannot 
fail of being cruel ; but there is something very fine 
and noble in the sport, which induces one to look 
over the cruelty of it. 

Tho' I have said I was disappointed in the beauty 
of Madrid, I mean only to compare that beauty to 
the expectations I was taught to raise ; it is certainly 
a beautiful town, but very unequally so ; the public 
walks, called the Prado, are most delightful avenues, 
and adorned with numerous magnificent fountains — 
this on the festival days used to be crowded with 
carriages, like Hyde Park ; now if a shabby solitary 
coach jogs slowly by, it causes a remark. The greater 
part of the nobility and gentry fled from Madrid in 



ii6 Madrid, June TfOth, 1813. 

1808, all the remainder that were not entirely devoted 
to the French left it before the latter entered it last 
November, and the French party fled with Joseph, 
the other day ; society, therefore, is not to be 
found here. A few gentlemen's families of little 
note remain, but they are scarcely to be found in 
the great void. You can form no idea of the rob- 
beries and destruction the French have committed, 
chiefly on their going away this last time — the deso- 
late state of the great houses, the ruins which meet 
your eye on all sides, of the Retiro, the convents, 
magnificent barracks, &c., &c., added to the numbers 
of starving wretches who crowd the streets and walks, 
make at one moment one's heart ache ; while (sin- 
gular contrast) the air rings with joyful shouts and 
expressions of almost universal delight at the bright 
prospect which now opens upon them. The new 
palace is a beautiful building, as far as it goes, but 
it has never been nor ever will be finished. An- 
other beautiful building on the Prado, intended for 
the Museum of Natural History and Arts, is likewise 
quite unfinished, and has been terribly injured by the 
French ; indeed, the new palace seems to be the only 
thing they have at all respected. From thence they 



Madrid, June T^otk, 1 8 1 3. 117 

have contented themselves with carrying off the very 
superior pictures, leaving still a very large and a very 
fine collection. The houses of the grandees have 
disappointed me. The only two handsome ones are 
— that formerly the Duchess of Alva's, and afterwards 
belonged to the brother of Godoy, Prince of Peace, 
and that of the Duke of Berwick, Alva, and Liria. 
These two excepted, the rest, though many of them 
very large, are neither handsome externally nor inter- 
nally ; the rooms are not fine, and the communica- 
tions, staircases, and whole style, abominable. The 
convents of monks are destroyed ; some are pulled 
down, but of most of them the walls are standing. 
One only appears to have been handsome. Most of 
the nuns' convents are uninjured ; two or three have 
been pulled down, but near thirty still remain and 
retain their prisoners. Some of these are good build- 
ings, but that is all that can be said. Of the public 
buildings the handsomest are the Custom House and 
Post Office, which are both very fine. The General 
Hospital is not half built, and looks like a ruin. Had 
the plan for it been completed it would have been a 
little town in size, and handsome. The new museum, 
two immense barracks, and other buildings ruined by 



1 1 8 Madrid, June 30/^, 18 13. 

the French, are easily reparable; but probably will 
remain years in this ruined state. There is no such 
thing as a handsome square in Madrid. Two of the 
gates are beautiful, and two others very neat. Most 
of the roads for some distance are planted with 
avenues, but otherwise the environs are open and bare 
of trees. The mountains to the north and north-west 
are a fine object. 

July loth, — Poor Bonar received Tuesday last the 
account of the horrid murder of his father and mother, 
and immediately set off by Lisbon for England ; we 
know not the particulars of it. We got the dispatches 
of the battle of Vittoria yesterday in the " Cadiz 
Gazette," but no names of killed and wounded ; but 
Fitzroy Somerset writes John word that William is 
well, and an officer (Captain Hay), who is lately ar- 
rived here from the army, says the Guards were not 
engaged. No letter has come either from Orlando or 
William. We went the other day to the Escurial, twenty- 
eight miles from hence ; it is a frightful building, but of 
immense size ; it had the finest collection of original 
pictures in Spain, but the French have not left a thing 
of any description in the building. It is absurd to 
call it a palace, for there is nothing of the kind, only 



Madrid, Jidy lot/i, 1813. 119 

a few miserable rooms for the King and Queen when 
they come there. All the rest is a Geronine Convent, 
two hundred friars, all driven out by the French, 
which one cannot regret, as the riches of these fellows 
were abominable. We have already exceeded the 
time we proposed staying at Madrid, having been 
here three weeks to-day ; but the heat makes us idle, 
and some of the sights are not to be seen without 
trouble ; however, we shall certainly be gone before 
another week expires. We now know for certain that 
the French are out of Valencia, where we shall be in 
the course of three weeks. I could write you whole 
volumes on Spanish affairs, but you cannot feel about 
them as we do ; you have English politics to employ 
you, we hear nothing of them. Lord Fitzroy, in his 
letter to John, mentions the Catholic question being 
thrown out ; things go on rather ill, I fear, in Ger- 
many. Suchet and Clausel have joined at, or near, 
Zaragoza, making a force of 30,000, but Lord Welling- 
ton despises them. Pamplona is strong, its garrison 
is 3,000, besides 2,000 wounded left behind. I suppose 
Joseph will collect guns in France, and return to the 
field. He and Jourdan are two fools ; the other French 
generals are quite mad at being under their command. 



120 Madrid, Jtdy \oth, 1813. 

The Cortes have voted Lord Wellington an estate, 
and the Regency are to choose it for him. The 
Spaniards have fought well in this battle, which is 
pleasant. Sir John Murray has played the devil ; 
was there ever anything equal to his conduct } I hope 
Lord William Bentinck will retrieve our fame. I have 
got some Spanish music here, which I will send the 
first opportunity. I hope you will receive my two 
letters from Alicante. We are to have a better bull- 
fight to-morrow, with horses, and all that is right. I 
shall send this letter to Corunna — I fear it will cost 

immensely, but S 1 would see me and you at the 

D 1 before he would forward it, (I have heard 

enough of his character,) and Cadiz is such a round. 
I was walking in the streets this morning, and among 
a string of prints on a wall for sale, I recognized the 
picture over the hall chimney-piece at Weston, sup- 
posed to be the portrait of a Lord Arundel and his 
son ; it proves to be a copy of a Vandyck, and the 
subject is Don Alfonso de Guzman the Good, first 
Lord of San Lucar de Barrameda, and founder of the 
House of Medina Sidonia ; as the print was engraved 
in 1789, by Manuel Salvador Carmona, the original 
is probably now in Spain in possession of the Duke of 



Madrid, July \ith, 1813. 121 

Medina Sidonia. I will send this print with the music 
from Mahon or Malta. 

July i^th, — I yesterday saw the original picture ; it 
is in the palace of the Marques de Villa Franca, heir 
to the titles and estates of Medina Sidonia. It is very 
beautiful, but has been damaged, and is in a very in- 
ferior state of preservation to yours. I could collect 
from the steward that the family set great value upon 
it. King Joseph had marked it to be carried away, 
and they know not by what good luck it has been left. 
We leave this place for Toledo on Saturday next. 
Mr. Frederick North and four friends are arrived here, 
they confirm the report we had heard that the plague 
is at Malta; I trust, however, it will prove trifling. 
They came from Sicily to Alicante. Sir J. Murray 
is almost hooted, and Lord William Bentinck was re- 
ceived with enthusiasm. We had a regular bull-fight 
on Sunday, and my opinion of it is totally changed ; 
such a horrid scene of bloodshed and brutality in 
a country calling itself civilized I could not have 
imagined possible; but I won't attempt to describe 
it, for it would make you shudder. 

God bless you, &c., &c. 





Valencia, 
A ugust 2yd ^ 1 8 1 3. 

H ! my beloved mother, what a large 
share of the happiness of my life do I 
see myself deprived of by the premature 
death of my dear and ever-to-be-lamented 
cousin.^ Had it pleased God to let her remain in this 
uncertain world until she had reached the natural age 
allotted to us mortals, how many of the most peaceful 
and happiest hours of my life should I have passed in 
her society and that of her amiable husband ! but the 
Almighty willed otherwise. She had suffered much 
from weak health, which she had borne with angelic 
patience and cheerfulness, and He has taken her away 



' Harriet, wife of the Honourable C. A. Pelham, afterwards 
Earl of Yarborough. 



Valencia, August 23;^^, 1 8 13. 123 

to reward her virtues with everlasting bliss. The 
death of my dear grandfather was a blow to me at 
first, but that was an event to be expected in the 
natural course of things ; he had lived to a good old 
age, and when he was almost unable to enjoy any- 
thing in this life, he was taken to a better. When I 
last took leave of him it was with a strong presenti- 
ment that I should not see him more. How different 
is the case of my beloved cousin Harriet ! The last 
hours I remained in my native land were passed in 
her society ; she was in better health, and stronger, 
than she had been since she married. I received from 
her then, as ever, innumerable marks of her affection ; 
she accompanied me in the boat to put me on board 
the fleet as it passed Cowes, and afterwards came to 
Yarmouth, where our fleet had put back, to take leave 
of me once more. Here we parted for the last time ! 
Gracious God ! how little did I then imagine that I 
should see her no more. Nothing now seems pos- 
sible to supply the loss to me, and I see myself, 
before I have completed my twenty-fourth year, 
deprived for ever of one of the chief sources of my 
earthly happiness. And yet my loss is inferior to my 
poor Lucy's, and, oh ! how they both sink almost to 



124 Valencia, Attgtcst 2'^rd, 1813. 

nothing when I consider that of her doating and dis- 
consolate husband ! May the all-merciful Father of 
mankind support him through this trial, which, I fear, 
will nearly overpower him. Clive received a few lines 
the day before yesterday from my aunt Bath, through 
Cadiz, in which at the end she just mentions that she 
fears I shall be much affected to hear of poor Har- 
riet's death — this is all I have heard of it, for my 
letters are gone, I fancy, either to Malta or Sicily; 
but yet I was not quite unprepared for this melan- 
choly blow, for at twelve o'clock on the night of the 
1 6th of July, which was only five hours previous to our 
leaving Madrid, Bayning^ and Herbert arrived there, 
and the former brought me a packet from Commis- 
sioner Fraser containing your letters Nos. 24 and 25 
of the 15th and 19th of May, in which you gave me 
such melancholy accounts of my beloved cousin, that 
I ought to have resigned from that moment all hopes 
of her surviving — but while there's life there's hope, 
and I could not at once bring my mind to expect 
that so great a calamity was so soon to befall me — 
and I vainly hoped that in so young a constitution, 

' Charles, second Lord Bayning. 



Valencia, August 2 3^/, 1 8 1 3. 125 

the effects of this illness might not be fatal. Alas ! 
alas ! how vain was the illusion ! I had intended not 
to have written to you till I had got to Mahon, but 
this melancholy news has determined me to get Clive 
to send this through Cadiz, as I think you will get it 
rather sooner, and the principal object of it is, that as 
poor dear Pelham/ since the death of William Caven- 
dish,2 }|as considered me as his greatest friend, and 
knowing his character as I do, I think it possible that 
he might in his present affliction receive some comfort 
from my society; in which case I would most wil- 
lingly go home, and the greatest satisfaction I could 
experience would be in feeling that I was in the 
slightest degree able to lighten the weight of sorrow 
with which God has been pleased to afflict him. I 
cannot bear to think how long it will be ere I can 
receive your answer to this, and at times I feel almost 
determined to go home at once without waiting for 
your opinion, and yet I don't like to do an absurd 
thing ; perhaps T might be after all of no use, and for 

* The Honourable Charles Anderson Pelham, created Earl of 
Yarborough. 

' Mr. William Cavendish, father of the present Duke of 
Devonshire. 



126 Valencia y August 23^^, 1813. 

myself I am infinitely better abroad — for here I am 
surrounded by no melancholy objects to bring my 
misfortune to my recollection ; on the contrary, every- 
thing I see or hear tends to make me forget England, 
home, and all belonging to them, and it is only at 
moments when my different senses are unemployed, 
that my reflections overwhelm me ; generally I feel 
myself bewildered by a sort of stupid melancholy, the 
cause of which I seem hardly to be aware of, which 
prevents me from enjoying surrounding objects ; 
while they on the other hand draw me away from the 
recollection of my loss. But why do I thus wound 
you with my melancholy thoughts ? If poor Pelham 
should ever express a wish for me, or from any hint, 
or anything else, you should imagine that I could 
be any comfort to him, write to me immediately, and 
I will return by the first opportunity ; indeed I trust 
you will do so should it occur, even without receiving 
this letter ; and after all, if on further reflection I 
should think it better not to wait for your answer, I 
may go home from Mahon. 

I will now shortly answer your last letters, my be- 
loved mother, and mention our proceedings : we left 
Madrid on the 17th of July, for Toledo, whence we 



Valencia, A ugust 2 3 r^, 1 8 1 3 . 127 

came straight here ; this journey, owing to the badness 
of the roads, took us a fortnight, and we arrived here 
on the 30th. Since then we have been detained here, 
owing to a report of the plague having been brought 
to Mahon from Malta — it turns out to be only one 
vessel in the lazaretto which has had a few sick, and 
it has proceeded no farther. We are now waiting for 
an English fish merchant-brig which is unloading 
here, and will then proceed in ballast to Palma in 
Majorca ; this vessel will take us all very well, and 
she expects to go in about a week. Herbert has now 
joined us, I have already mentioned his arrival at 
Madrid with Bayning, they stayed there a fortnight, 
and then Bayning went to England, and Herbert 
came here. I believe you don't know Bayning, I wish 
you would get acquainted with him, for I am sure 
you would like him ; he is very lively, sensible, natural, 
and agreeable, and one of the most honourable, con- 
scientious young men I know. I have the greatest re- 
gard for him, and I believe he has for me. He went to 
Santander hoping to catch Mr. F. North and his 
party there, and to embark with him for England — 
would to God that I had by inspiration determined to 
have gone with him ; but I did not even read your 



128 Valencia, August 2^7'd, 1813. 

letters mentioning dear Harriet's illness till on my 
road to Toledo, for I had not time the night I received 
them, and as it was, I only was in bed two hours. A 
thousand thanks, my dear mother, for them both. . . 
. . . . I trust you will have received at last 
my letter from Malaga. I have not heard from 
Orlando since I left Alicante ; I wrote him two letters 
from Madrid, but I got no answer — he probably 
thought I should not stay there so long ; I shall be 
most anxious till I hear something of him, though I 
don't believe he could have been either in the battle 
of Vittoria, or that of Pamplona. What a great man 
is Lord Wellington, and how noble has been the con- 
duct of all our troops ; but it is dreadful to think of 
the loss in two such bloody battles. Once more Lord 
William Bentinck has raised the blockade of Tarra- 
gona, and they say the French had evacuated it and 
blown up the works — this seems strange ; our falling 
back appears to be owing to the Spanish troops want- 
ing provisions ; how abominable this is in those 
whose business it is to supply them, with such a land 
of milk and honey behind them as this province of 
Valencia. John Russell goes with us to Sicily, and 
intends to embark there for England in December. 



Valencia y A iigust 2 3 r^, 1 8 1 3 . 129 

I wrote you a long letter from Madrid by the post. 
I do not yet know whether the books I sent from 
Gibraltar, or the sherry I sent to my father from 
Cadiz, have arrived. I must now close my letter 
hastily, dear mother, 

&c., &c. 




I 





Valencia, 

September Ztkj 1813. 

INCE I wrote last to you, my dearest 
mother, I have heard by a captain of 
the Navy, who came from Gibraltar, that 
Fraser has been so unwell as to apply 
for leave to go home. If this is true, in all probability 
you will know it long before you receive this ; but on 
the possibility of the reverse, I write these few lines to 
beg of you not to send any more letters through him, 
but to Sicily at once. I hope all those that have 
been sent to Malta will not be destroyed in conse- 
quence of the plague ; for old as most of them are, I 
long to read them all. I remain in the same mind as 
when I wrote last, about not going home until I re- 
ceive your answer in Sicily. Oh ! my dear mother, 
how I long to hear some account of poor Harriet's 



Valencia^ September Zth, 1 8 1 3. 131 

last moments (I pray to God that they may have been 
easy, and that her poor surviving, doating husband 
may have been supported through his hard trial). As 
is usual with everything relating to the sea, we have 
been delayed here a long while, but at last we are 
likely to go ; our merchant brig sails to-morrow 
evening, we shall stay very few days in Majorca, and 
proceed to Mahon, whence I will write to you again. 
The unprovisioned state of the Spanish Army is quite 
melancholy, it did oblige us again to retire from 
Tarragona, and allowed the French to blow up the 
works ; the poor soldiers are absolutely starving here 
in the midst of plenty ; nobody but those on the spot, 
and who know the Spanish character, could believe 
their unnatural indolence and negligence possible. 
The Constitution, unfortunately, is so strict, that 
generals and commanding officers are absolutely for- 
bidden to interfere in the provisioning of their corps, 
they dare not lay their hands upon a crumb of 
bread, and the civil authorities whose duty it is to 
supply the armies, think no more of it, than the in- 
habitants of the moon ; yet the Government never 
thinks of punishing them, and the Cortes have been, 
and continue to be, solely occupied in disputing, and 



132 Valencia, September ^tk, 181 



J- 



making laws for that country which they take not a 
single step to liberate, or secure, from their crafty 
enemies ; it is enough to exhaust the patience of Job 
himself, to see their absurd and lethargic policy. Our 
troops are frequently put on half rations to save the 
poor Spanish soldiers from starving, yet all does not 
do to enable them to keep the field. How very 
flattering the Prince Regent's letter to Lord Welling- 
ton is ; numerous inveterate cabals are already at 
work against him with all their venom, and I fear he 
will individually rue the day he took the command of 
the army of the haughtiest nation upon earth. The 
estate they have given him of the " Soto de Roma," 
is worth, they say, about $20,000 per annum ; they 
first said 100,000, but that is an egregious exaggera- 
tion. Adieu, my dear parents ; the wind, what there 
is of it, is favourable to us, but I imagine we shall 
have a slow passage. 






, Mahon, 
September 2(ith^ iZi^, 

OB SPENCERS has just arrived from 
the fleet, my dearest mother, and has 
brought me your letters from the 6th to 
nth July, and of the 17th, with inclosures 
from my dear father, Lucy, and poor Pelham. Lord 
William Bentinck, who is on his return to Sicily in 
consequence of some serious disturbance there, brought 
them to the fleet from Tarragona. Bob Spencer's 
brig has not entered the port, and he is going out to 
her immediately to proceed to England, so that I am 
quite bewildered how to answer the most important 
parts of your letters. I grieve much that you don't 
receive my long letter from Alicante, for besides con- 



^ Captain the Honourable Sir Robert Spencer, R.N. 



134 Makofiy September 26 iky 18 13. 

taining so much of our travels, whole sheets were full 
of interests which none but you and I and a very few 
others should see. I was a fool to write so confiden- 
tially from abroad. My letter from Malaga only 
described some beautiful scenery and a few other 
trifles; but as Fraser positively wrote me he had 
forwarded it, I am surprised it has not reached you. 
It has been a great comfort to me to receive your 
detailed account of poor Harriet's last moments, and 
that Pelham has borne all so well ; but from his letter 
I think it seems but too evident that a fixed de- 
spair will prey upon him, and that is a thousand 
times more cruel than all those violent feelings he 
seems to have escaped. However, I am relieved from 
all doubt as to the necessity of going home to him, 
although I still request that should he at any time 
seem to desire to have me, you will instantly inform 
me. Poor Mrs. Eliot's death I chanced to see in an 
" Observer" at Valencia. Clive knew nothing of it. 
I cannot say how much it shocked me. Oh ! what 
would I not give to have time to write comfortably. 
I should nil a volume. Bob Spencer will take home 
some Valencia shawls for me, and the Spanish music 
so long promised. Poor Lucy's letter is very melan- 



Mahon, September 26tk, 1813. 135 

choly; she will never cease to feel her loss. My 
kindest love and duty to my father and her, and 
thanks for their letters. We are to have forty days 
quarantine at Palermo. It has almost made me for- 
swear travelling, and I had half determined to go 
home. John is going ; Spencer will disembark him 
in Tarragona, whence he will proceed by land to 
Corunna. A store-ship goes home in a few days, by 
which I will write fully. We arrived at Mahon on 
Thursday last, the 23 rd ; how, you shall know in my 
next. At present there is no opportunity to Sicily. 
I find by your letter that Orlando did not go with 
General Stopford to the army as he wrote me word 
he was to do, which accounts for my not having heard 
from him at Madrid. Pray send the enclosed scrap 
to Pelham, and tell him how I am circumstanced. In 
haste, adieu. 





, Mahon, 
September 2Zth^ 1 8 1 3. 




WAS most cruelly hurried, my dearest 
mother, when I wrote you those few 
lines the day before yesterday by Bob 
Spencer, who commands the ** Espoir" 
brig. I will now endeavour to reply quietly to your 

letters They say we shall have forty 

days quarantine at Palermo. I fancy we shall go in 
a transport which will sail in a few days ; but as it is 
sure to have convoy, one of us may have the luck to 
go in the brig of war. Admiral Pickmore is very 
civil and obliging about our passage, and will do his 
best for us. We are living with the navy here, and 
go to many Spanish houses in the evening. The 
natives are stupid ; many cannot talk Spanish, and 
the rest talk it very ill ; but there are crowds of 



MaJion, September 2 8 />^, 1813. 137 

refugees, chiefly Catalans, and some of them are 
pleasant. Spencer promised to get four Valencia 
shawls over for me if he could, and will send them to 
Grosvenor Street. Three of them, which resemble 
feathers, are peculiar to Valencia, and highly valued 
by some people ; the other I thought pretty. Every- 
thing I send home, you will know, my dear mother, 
you are welcome to ; and I must insist on your taking 
one of the crimson shawls, and the common one 
besides, and keep those you don't take for me till we 
meet. I bought a very long gold chain at Cadiz, 
which I intend for dear Lucy, but it has gone to 
Palermo, and I must explain why. A report was 
spread at Valencia, while we were there, that the 
plague had broken out here. On this John sent off a 
letter to his servant (who was here) to go to Palermo 
by the first opportunity with all our things, and he 
unfortunately went ten days before we arrived, so 
that we are in great distress for clothes (that is, linen) 
for the voyage. The report was false, and a malicious 
one, attributed to our enemies, for the place has been 
perfectly healthy ; and it is particularly unlucky for 
John, to whom we are to send his servant and things, 
on our arrival at Palermo. 

T 



138 Mahofty September 29///, 181 3. 

Wednesday, the 2()tk. — I quitted you suddenly 
yesterday, my dear Mother, for I found it was past 
the dinner hour. I must conclude my letter to-day, 
as they tell me the store-ship sails to-morrow. I 
wrote yesterday to poor Pelham. Heaven grant my 
letter may be some comfort to him ! I fear he suffers 
more than he appears to do, and that his grief is of 
that nature that rather stupefies than admits of out- 
ward show of feeling, as we witnessed in him on poor 
William Cavendish's death. Yours giving an account 
of dear Harriet's, alludes to a severe illness Pelham 
has had, the account of which, I suppose, is in one of 
your letters that has not reached me ; thank God her 
death was so easy and calm ! The want of feeling 
she shewed on all occasions for some time previous to 
it, is a melancholy subject for reflection — ^that a heart 
so sensible as hers was, could be reduced by suffering 
to almost insensibility ! Oh ! my dear Mother, how 
young I am to feel so out of conceit with this world 

as I already do This d — d place, 

Sebastian, has cost us cruelly. I was very sorry in- 
deed to hear of poor Cadogan's ^ death ; he is a great 

' Hon. Henry Cadogan, killed at the battle of Vittoria. 



MakoUy September 29//^, 1813. 139 

loss; Fletcher's^ is irreparable. I see by the papers 
that Trant is gone to England. I wish it may be in 
your power to show him some civility in return for 
the very great kindness we received from him in 
Oporto. I was greatly shocked to hear of Mrs. Eliot's 
death. I read it in a paper at Valencia an hour or 
two before we embarked, and I broke it to Clive at 
Palma. We went on board our brig at Valencia on 
the night of the 9th ; the wind was at first favourable, 
but afterwards variable, with calms. The brig was a 
clumsy, bad sailer, and the master a great blackguard. 
We had a great deal of swell, and were all sick ; we 
slept in pigeon-holes, like those in a packet, and 
anchored at Palma at noon on the 12th. They gave 
us a day's quarantine, and we went on shore the fol- 
lowing evening. We had sent off our passport to the 
Captain-General of the Province before, and they 
treated us most magnificently. We lodged in the 
Episcopal Palace, where they fed us very well. One 
day we dined with the Captain-General (the Marquis 
de Coupigny). Palma is a handsome old town ; we 

* Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Richard Fletcher, killed before San 
Sebastian. 



140 Mahon, September 29//^, 1813. 

stayed four days there, and amused ourselves very 

well. We then went across the island to Soller, and 

thence by Pollenza to Alcudia. The environs of 

Palma, and all the south of the island, is flat, but rich 

in olives and other fruit trees. Soller is the most 

beautiful orange garden, surrounded by the most 

magnificent mountains imaginable, and the views 

from thence to Pollenza are strikingly grand. Such 

magnificent mountains in so small an island are very 

remarkable, but it would be in vain to attempt the 

description of these natural beauties ; I must defer 

this till we meet. We embarked at Alcudia in the 

morning of the 21st in a small fishing boat, not the 

size of a man-of-war's launch ; but the wind being 

against us, we could do little, and towards evening 

we put into a small creek, near the mouth of the bay. 

Here we cooked our dinners, and laid down upon 

the shingles till past midnight. We embarked again 

at one, and put to sea with a favourable wind ; but 

when we had got about half way to Minorca, these 

poor fishermen were desperately frightened, and 

lowered the sail, leaving us to be tossed about in a 

high swell wherever the waves chose to carry us ; for 

a terrible storm of thunder had been threatening us 



Mahon, September 29/^, 18 13. 141 

all night from the north, and the wind freshened, and 
was variable and unsettled, the lightning incessant; 
and they said they must wait to see which way the wind 
would blow in the morning : in half an hour it was 
twilight; and shortly after the storm went off in 
another direction. After a little rain we got a fair 
wind, and the weather gradually clearing, we saw the 
low land of Minorca. Again the wind entirely failed 
us, and we lay becalmed for some time, but at last a 
light air slowly brought us into the Creek of Ciudadela 
at about eleven o'clock. In truth we had not a very 
agreeable passage, and were not sorry to change 
our clothes, and get some breakfast. With a good 
wind the passage from Alcudia to Ciudadela is made 
in three or four hours, and we were twenty-six ! I 
hope we shall have no more fishing-boat voyages. On 
the 23rd we arrived here. Minorca is a flat, ugly 
island, full of stones and empty of trees : Mahon is 
an excellent town, cheerful and clean, and there is 
some good quiet society, but no large parties. Clive 
has just told me the transport we expected to go in 
to Palermo has received orders to stay here, so that 
when we shall go is very uncertain. Lady Oxford is 
here, but as she lives a mile and a half off (at Villa 



142 Mahon, September 2(^tky 181 



o- 



Carlos, otherwise Charles's Town), and I have no great 
predilection for her ladyship, I have not called upon 
her. Clive dined with her yesterday. Lord Oxford 
is gone to Cagliari, and she wants now to follow him, 
but cannot get a passage ; nobody seems inclined to 
assist her. You expect accounts of the fetes, &c., at 
Madrid ; but although we went there, certainly at an 
excellent moment to see the lower orders, it was quite 
empty of rank and fortune — consequently there were 
no diversions : but I particularly enjoy seeing and 
observing the people of a country, more especially in 
Spain, where they are the only estimable part of the 
population ; I don't mean only the very lowest. God 
bless you, my dear parents ; give my love to all who 
care for me. 

&c., &c., &c. 





, Mahon, 
October nth, 1813. 

E are still here, my dear mother, without 
any prospect of getting on at present. 
The " Redwing," Captain Sir John 
Sinclair, sailed yesterday for Cagliari, 
and took Lady Oxford and her family there, where 
they will join Lord Oxford ; they took no convoy, or 
we might have got a passage in one of them ; Sinclair 
proceeds from Cagliari straight to Malta, to take 
convoy to England. There are several merchant 
vessels and transports laden here for Palermo and 
Syracuse, but Admiral Pickmore has nothing to send 
to convoy them. We had a pic-nic the other day, 
some navy captains and we travellers, and enjoyed 
ourselves tolerably well : it would have succeeded to 
perfection, but the Consul's daughter (a young lady 



1 44 MakoUy October iit/i, 1 8 1 



o* 



of some consequence on such occasions) chose to be 
huffed about something ; and when, at dusk, we ex- 
pected to have had a dance she would go home, and 
she carried her point We dine to- 
day with Admiral Pickmore, where we shall have a 
large naval party ; he lives in a country house about 
two miles from Mahon. I begin to tire of this place, 
and so do the others. The society don't improve upon 
us ; it will have a great loss to-day in a lady of the 
name of Taverne, who is going to Palma about a law- 
suit : I like her and her family better than any 
Spaniards I have seen ; she is a Catalan : her husband 
is a Frenchman who has always been in the Spanish 
service : he commands one of the Spanish line-of- 
battle ships which are laying rotting in this port. They 
have two daughters grown up, and several other 
children, and have music every night. The mother 
is a woman of education, and has brought up her 
daughters very differently from any Spaniards I have 
seen before, and they are capable of some other con- 
versation than what you meet with in general in 
Spain, which is immodest love-making and disgusting 
flattery. The father stays here, as he cannot leave his 
ship, and the daughters stay likewise ; but I fear we 



Mahon, October ii//^, 1813. 145 

shall find the house very different without the mother. 
There are many amiable points in the female Spanish 
character — they are affable to strangers, and very 
good-humoured, and you can hardly expect conversa- 
tion or good conduct from poor girls who literally 
cannot be said to know how to read and write ; the 
men are chiefly to blame here, and I hope the day 
will come when a general education throughout the 
country will render all more enlightened, and that 
the female part will be enabled to profit of those 
talents which they possess to a high degree ; they are 
infinitely superior in this country to our sex. I don't 
know whether the toasts a Vanglaise would astonish 
the Oporto ladies, but I am sure they have not that 
effect on those at Cadiz, where they are well used to 
them, and enjoy the custom beyond measure ; you 
would be shocked to see girls of fifteen, sixteen, and 
seventeen, swilling down bumpers of champagne one 
after another as they da You mention how little 
summer you have had this year in England ; it has 
been the same here, and the rains and cold weather 
lasted so long, the people were quite astonished ; now 
it is oppressively hot, but at this season it is always 
variable, and they expect a great deal of rain ; as yet 

U 



1 46 Mahon, October wth, 1 8 1 3. 

there has been very little since we came. A few days 
ago there Was a dreadful storm, but it did not last 
long — the thunder shook every ship and every house ; 
one of the transports was struck with lightning which 
carried away the main-top mast, splitting it into a 
thousand pieces, injured the mainmast, killed two 
men, and injured nine ; the storms here are tremen- 
dous, and accidents happen every year to our ship- 
ping in the harbour. The " Revenge " came in a 
short time ago, and I have got acquainted with St. 
John, one of its lieutenants, a great friend of Charles's ; 
I dined with him the other day in the wardroom, and 
it was very gratifying to hear Charles so highly spoken 
of as he was by those officers who were with him in 
the ship— there are few of them left, the greater part 
quitted with Admiral Legge ; the " Revenge '* is 
now commanded by Sir J. Gore. St. John told me 
he had seen the list of killed and wounded at the 
taking of San Sebastian, and that Orlando was men- 
tioned as slightly wounded ; I trust it is slightly, in 
which case I shall rejoice at it, as there is nothing so 
gratifying to a young officer interested in his profes- 
sion as to have his name honourably mentioned. I 
have seen the dispatch giving an account of this 



Mahofty October lytk, 1813. 147 

affair, but not the list of killed and wounded ; it 
seems to have been one of the severest things our 
army have had. Poor dear Orlando ! God prosper him 
in his profession. St. John tells me he has no doubt 
Charles is acting commander before this time, as he 
knows he was second for promotion on the list, and 
we have heard some time ago of the first being pro- 
moted ; I wish St. John may prove correct. I am 
astonished I should not have mentioned Conway 
Seymour in my second letter from Alicante. He dined 
with us several times, he is a fine boy, very manly 
and sensible, and seems to like his profession exceed- 
ingly, he is rather forward, and plays the man, 
perhaps, a little too much, but then his conversation 
and remarks are beyond his years. I was very near 
writing once to Lady George, but I was too lazy, for I 
had written so much at Alicante that I was quite sick 
of it. Henry Thynne ^ spoke well of Conway, but I 
thought not with very great cordiality — but Henry is 
silent and quiet, and would not perhaps say all he 
thought ; they seem good friends. 

October 17 th. — I have now another letter to thank 

* Lord Henry Thynne, afterwards Marquess of Bath. 



148 Mahon, October 20th, 181 3. 

you for, my dear mother ; it is No. 29, of the 8th 
of August ; it came several days ago in a bag 
directed to Alicante, which, most fortunately for me, 
the Admiral's Lieutenant opened just before it was 
sent to its destination, thinking it was possible there 
might be a letter for some one here. Fraser had sent 
mine to the fleet, and directed it to Admiral Pick- 
more ; but owing to some mistake, I had nearly lost 
it — a thousand thanks for it, and its inclosures. . . 

Don't fear any danger for me at Malta ; 

depend upon it, if they keep anything for me I may 
safely receive it — for they are so cautious, they destroy 
everything about which there is the slightest suspicion. 
I am glad you have received my long letter from 
Alicante, you say nothing of that from Malaga, which 
must certainly be lost. 

October 20th. — We are now likely to go to Palermo 
in a day or two ; the " Cossack," a twenty-gun ship, 
is come in from Gibraltar, and is in quarantine, but 
will convoy the transports I mentioned in my last 
letter, without riding out here her quarantine. Captain 
Napier is going to England, and will take this. He 
goes to Gibraltar in the ** Stromboli " bomb-ship, and 
sails to-morrow or the next day ; at Gibraltar he meets 



Mahon, October 2 1 j/f, 1 8 1 3 . 149 

the ** Invincible," going to England. My next letter will 
be from Sicily, where I fear we shall have a terrible 
quarantine, although this place is perfectly healthy. 
Captain Noel, who is going to join his brig in the 
Adriatic, Herbert, Clive, and myself, are to have the 
cabin of a transport to ourselves ; the master is to 
feed us for a certain sum. I enclose letters for Lucy, 
Mrs. Cautley, and Lord George Quin. We have such 
strange, contradictory reports here of German affairs, 
that it is impossible even to guess at the truth. I 
trust, however, that all goes on pretty satisfactorily. 
If I know the day of our sailing before I am obliged 
to seal this, I will add it, if not, adieu. I had intended 
writing to Mr. Chap, but I have not time ; give him 
my love, and also to all my other friends and relations 
you may see or write to. God bless you, my dear 
parents, 

Your ever affectionate and dutiful son, 

G. A. F. H. B. 

October 2ist — Nothing new has occurred, and I must 
close up my letter. I suppose we shall go to-morrow 
or the next day. 





. Mahon, 
October 2Sth^ 1813. 

INCE closing my long letter a few days 
ago, my dearest father, our plans have 
been all adrift again. The convoy I 
said we were going in sailed yesterday, 
but Herbert was very unwell, and unable to go with 
it, and Clive and I do not like to leave him here ; it 
is very unfortunate, for they have a delightful wind 
and beautiful weather. I directed my last letter (of 
which I consider this a P.S.) to Mr. Hamilton, at the 
Foreign Office, and this I shall direct immediately to 
you. I mention the circumstance in order that should 
you receive the P.S. before the letter, you may not 
think it is lost ; they both go home by the same 
means, namely, by Captain Napier. Heaven knows 
when we shall go now ; we are most heartily sick of 



Mahon, October 2 ^th, 1 8 1 3. 151 

Mahon. The fleet are not come in yet, but are ex- 
pected on the 1st, but the weather is now so fine again 
that possibly they may remain out longer. It will be 
a fine sight to see them all here together ; there are 
now seven line - of - battle ships, four frigates, and 
several brigs here, but that is thought nothing ! A 
squadron of five or six sail of the line are to cruise all 
the winter off Cape Creux and the Bay of Rosas. 
Sir J. Gore is to command as senior captain ; the 
ships are to be the " Revenge," ** Ocean," " Berwick," 
" Fame," " Aboukir," and, I believe, another ; it will 
knock them about terribly. We are in anxious ex- 
pectation of more news from the north, for we have 
heard nothing since Bonaparte entered Dresden. I 
am glad to find there was no foundation for the report 
of the yellow fever having shown itself at Cadiz ; at 
Gibraltar it is quite dreadful. The last accounts we 
have from Malta are much more favourable, and I 
hope the plague is now decreasing fast. God bless 
you, my dear parents^ 

&c., &c., &c. 



~" 
















-i 




1 


1 




1 




M 


S 


__ 


__ 


___ 













J 




* Mahon, 
November t^thy 1813. 

HE "Perseus" is come in to-day from 
Algiers with M. A' Court, and sails again 
to-morrow for England. I will there- 
fore send you a few lines, my dear 
parents, to say that at present all remains in statu quo ; 
neither Herbert being well enough to go yet, nor a 
means of conveyance offering, since the transports 
went that I mentioned in my last letter. I believe 
another opportunity for sending letters will offer in a 
day or two, when I will write again. The fleet are 
still out, but it is supposed they have left the blockade 
of Toulon, and are either on the coast of Catalonia 
or of Sardinia. We are most anxious for news that 
may be depended upon, both from the Peninsula and 
from Germany. It is an age since we have known 



Mahon, November ()t/z, i^i-^. 153 

anything certain, and in the interval have been in- 
undated with contradictory reports. My spirits are 
much better than they were. Clive would have 
written if I had not ; this is some of his paper ; he 
calls it letter paper, but I think it deserves the name 
of blotting paper better. God bless you, my dear 
parents, and preserve you, to watch over and guide 
Your ever affectionate and dutiful son. 






.- Mahon, 
November lothy 1813. 

WROTE you a few lines, my dear 
mother, last night, and sent them by the 
" Perseus." The " Repulse " sails to- 
morrow for the coast of Catalonia, from 
whence a ship is going home, and I take the oppor- 
tunity of sending you a few more. I said last night 
that my spirits were much better, and I attribute it to 
two or three causes. Time is the principal one, I be- 
lieve ; another is, that I heard from Captain Hamilton 
that his friend Clifford ^ is married to Miss Townshend, 
one of Lord John's daughters ; he could not tell me 
which it is, but I hope it is Audrey. I hear Harting- 



' Admiral Sir Augustus Clifford, Bart., gentleman-usher of the 
black rod. 



MakoHy November loth, 1813. 155 

ton has made a very handsome settlement upon him. 
This circumstance, however, cannot have had much to 
do with the improvement of my spirits with respect 
to the loss of dear Harriet. I attribute this more to 
a rather singular friendship I have formed, which has 
lately interested me a good deal, and in which I have 
had the satisfaction of being of essential use to that 
friend, against whom it seemed the world (at least 
Mahon) was conspired ; the gratitude of this person, 
and the pleasure of feeling of use to a fellow-creature, 
have afforded me comfort I have not experienced for 
some time. This little circumstance seems to have 
removed that gloom which had seized upon my spirits, 
and although the immediate interest which had drove 
it away, is itself passed by too, yet it has left a calm 
behind, and I find my spirits wonderfully relieved ; 
don't think me quite out of my senses for writing such 
an unintelligible story — the subject is such as I would 
not trust to paper, though I would gladly tell it to 
you ; is it self-love that has led me to say what I 
have t I hope not. I hope it is only the wish to give 
you pleasure — you who are so kind as always to press 
me to communicate all my interests. I grieve that at 
such a distance I dare not be entirely unreserved. I 



156 Mahon, November \2th, 18 13. 

wonder what you will think of me — I begin to think 
myself a very odd fellow, and that I shall return to 
England a very different character from what I was 
two years ago. What I am most afraid of is, that I 
shall imbibe too bad an opinion of the world in general 
for my own happiness ; I hope, at least, that I shall 
not become illiberal. 

November 12th. — Contrary winds have detained the 
'* Repulse," and yesterday the " Rivoli " arrived from 
England with papers to the i8th ult., bringing down 
the German news to the 19th of September ; upon 
the whole it is satisfactory, but we had raised our ex- 
pectations higher. I see that poor Burrard, who I 
believe was the next above Orlando in the Guards, 
was killed at San Sebastian, at the same time that • 
Orlando was slightly wounded. The *' Barfleur " came 
in to-day from the fleet, and brings an account of the 
partial brush we have had with the French fleet of ten 
sail, as they were returning into Toulon. It is very 
unlucky that we could not bring off one ship. The 
Monitetir will make a flourishing story of it ; they 
say Sir Edward Pellew is very sore about it. The 
ship that is going home is the " Bombay ;" the 
" Repulse " will probably sail to-morrow, as the wind 



Mahon, November 1 2//^, 1 8 1 3. 157 

seems inclined to shift a little. The fleet is expected 
in daily. Herbert is getting better, and should an 
opportunity for Sicily offer in a week's time, I believe 
we may avail ourselves of it. I have written by this 
opportunity to my uncle Gunning.^ Give my love to 
all you know are dear to me. God bless you, my be- 
loved parents, 

&c., &c., &c. 

' Sir George Gunning, Bart. 






In quarantine, on board the transport " Diadem," 
Palermo Bay, December ythy 1813. 

My Dearest Mother, 

N our arrival here, John's servant sent me 
several letters from you. Thank you a 
thousand times for them ; they have 
afforded me very great pleasure, but yet 

I am not satisfied, for many are still missing 

Herbert being a great deal better, we embarked on 
board the " Prevoyant " store-ship, which was to sail 
from Mahon on the 24th ult. for Malta, touching at 
Palermo ; strong easterly winds, however, detained us 
till the 27th, on which afternoon we sailed with a fair 
wind, taking under convoy four transports and a mer- 
chant ship. We had an excellent passage with a 
fresh easterly breeze, and anchored in this bay in the 



Palermo Bay, December "jthy 1813. 159 

afternoon of the ist inst., exactly four days from 
Mahon. They put us into quarantine for twenty-six 
melancholy days, making thirty from Mahon. We 
were rather thunderstruck at this information, but 
upon the whole we bear it with becoming fortitude 
and resignation. The store-ship sailed on the 4th for 
Malta, and we shifted on board this transport, one of 
our convoy. Our party in the " Prevoyant " consisted 
of Lieutenant-Colonel Travers, of the loth Foot, 
coming on leave from Tarragona to see his wife here ; 
Mr. Wilkinson, late secretary to Admiral Martin, going 
to Malta, where he is appointed Agent Victualler ; a 
Neapolitan gentleman, now resident in Sicily, who 
spoke nothing but Italian ; Mr. Trounce, the master 
of the ship ; and our three selves ; we were not there- 
fore at all crowded, and formed a pleasant party 
enough. The first half-day we were all, except Wil- 
kinson, very ill ; but afterwards, quite well. J. Cobb 
is in high feather, and desires me to say he does not 
know how to thank you enough for all your kindness. 
Clive is in perfect health, and thanks you for your 
kind messages. I shall destroy your little note to 
John, as I imagine it cannot be worth returning. 
Herbert is nearly recovered : I find from him that his 



i6o Palermo Bay^ December jth, 1813. 

marriage with Ly. E. B. is certainly entirely broken 
off. You cannot think how glad we were to leave 
that abominable place, Mahon, after staying there 
nine weeks ; I really thought it worse than Alicante, 
which is saying a great deal. After the fleet came in, 
we dined every day on board some ship, — with Sir 
Edward Pellew in the "Caledonia," Sir Sidney in the 
** Hibernia," Sir R. King in the " San Josef," with 
Captain Burl ton in the *' Boyne," and with Captain 
Hammond in the " Rivoli." I told Captain Burlton 
with what pleasure my father always talked of his 
passage with him to Ireland, and his great hospitality. 
He desired I would give his kind remembrance : he 
lives, they say, better than ever, and is the life and 
soul of the Fleet. Mr. and Mrs. Dashwood are still 
at Palermo ; he has kindly come out in a boat to 
talk to us almost every day, and has given us news- 
papers, &c., &c. John's servant has been extremely 
ill here, and is not yet much better; I fear he has 
had bad advice. I begged of Dashwood to send his 
servant to him to see that he got the best. I find he 
was kind enough to go himself, and George is now in 
the English military hospital, where I hope he will 
soon get well. We have got some books from shore, 



Palermo Bay^ December Zth, 1813. 161 

and are beginning to learn Italian, though I fear we 
shall not advance much by ourselves. Herbert learnt 
it at Malta, but he wants brushing-up. Colonel 
Travers is on board the " Iris " transport, where his 
wife and children have joined him, we three, and the 
Neapolitan, here. When Clive and I have gram- 
mared it a little, we shall find him of use to talk to, 
as Herbert already does. We are much delighted 
with the town and bay of Palermo, as we see them 
from our ship ; nothing can be finer than the island 
appears ; the weather is delightful, but this prison is 
not the place to enjoy it. Adieu till to-morrow, when 
I will resume my pen. 

December %th. — A transport arrived the other day 
from Ponza (the island near the Bay of Naples, taken 
lately by Captain Napier), bringing a despatch to Lord 
William Bentinck, and a Neapolitan gentleman, sup- 
posed to be sent with some proposals from his Govern- 
ment ; the despatch was sent instantly to Lord William, 
and the transport returned yesterday to Ponza, with the 
Neapolitan, after a long conference between him and 
General McFarlane, now commanding here; the 
quarantine from Ponza here being forty days, he could 
not land. Yesterday brought us an account from 

Y 



i62 Palermo Bay, December Zth, 1813. 

Messina of another similar communication from the 
opposite coast of Calabria, where a Neapolitan officer 
had arrived from Naples ; of course we shall know no 
more particulars, but this is enough to raise favour- 
able conjectures. Our plans are to pass five weeks 
at Palermo, and then to travel round the island, be- 
ginning at the west end of it, and thence by the south, 
and east to Messina ; but as we wish to be at the 
capital during the greatest gaiety, which will natu- 
rally be in the carnival, we cannot determine finally 
tiir we know when this falls ; perhaps, therefore, we 
may start soon from Palermo, make a short tour, and 
return to it afterwards for a month ; we probably shall 
be near four months in the island, and then go to 
Malta, from whence we shall go to Zante, and thence 
to Greece. In consequence of the time we have un- 
expectedly spent in the Peninsula, I have persuaded 
Clive to give up Egypt, though very reluctantly, for 
he would fain see all the world, but I tell him I can- 
not remain so many years out of England. He and 
Herbert are still determined on going from Constanti- 
nople to Russia — but I hope we shall have a Peace 
by that time, when I should infinitely prefer visiting 
Italy, Switzerland, and France. All these are castles 



Palermo Bay, December %thy 1%!'^, 163 

in the air, but it is amusing to form plans for different 
circumstances. They say the English are not near so 
popular here as they were ; Lord William Bentinck is 
much less so, since Sir J. M. was here, who seems to 
have conducted himself strangely, and to have shown 
great civilities to the French party, in short, to those 
who are Lord William B.'s chief enemies. The English 
are outrageous with him for this ; but he contrived to 
gain much popularity among the Sicilian nobility, 
and several of the authorities (those probably whom 
Lord William kept under rather more than they 
liked), but I know yet too little of Sicilian politics to 
speak with any confidence. I will now answer some 
questions in a very old letter of yours, although too 
late, I fear, to be of interest : a Portuguese league 
ought to contain three miles and five-sixths, but \ 
usually calculated them at four miles ; however, they 
are not measured, consequently you meet with no 
regularity ; they often exceed five, and sometimes are 
scarcely three ! A Spanish Legua del Rey (or King's 
league) is exactly four miles, but on the generality of 
roads they are not measured, and on an average do 
not exceed three and a half ! A Quinta is the Portu- 
guese name for a country house or villa, with a wood, 



164 Palermo Bay, December Zth, 18 13. 

shrubbery, or garden enclosed by a wall ; in Spain 
they are less common, and are called Casas de Campo 
(or country houses). At the Convent of Arouca the 
nuns who appeared at tea and breakfast were only 
the Abbess and five or six old ones : it was in a large 
parlour, divided by an iron grate, where they always 
receive company of an evening ; the eatables and 
drinkables were passed to us by those turning shelves 
common in all convents — I forget their name. It was 
at the grate of the church the next morning that we 
saw the pretty young nun who smote Clive ; her 
sister, who is many years older than her, obtained 
leave for her to come. The Bernardine order is very 
rich, and far from a strict one — these, and the Augus- 
tines, fare sumptuously. While I think of it, I will 
say a few words about my letter of credit ; it is dated 
19th of June, 1812, to continue for two years; it will 
expire, therefore, on the 19th of next June ; the credit 
is for ;£'3,ooo, of which I have drawn, up to this day, 
;f 500 only, and I am about ;£"400 in debt to Clive ; 
after paying him, I shall have above ;^2,ooo left — suffi- 
cient to last me a very long time. I should imagine 
that, without placing any new sum in Herries's hands, 
I can have this letter renewed for two years longer. 



Palermo Bay, December 2>tk, 1813. 165 



As the packet calls at Palermo on its way to Malta, 
you may send any letters you write to me before 
the second week in March under cover to Lord 
William B., as we shall certainly remain in Sicily 
till late in April. Direct afterwards straight to Malta. 

Gordon, of Xeres, is, as a politician, a great 

rogue, as Charles told you ; he was under arrest 
when we saw him there, but he has contrived to get 
enlarged since, I suppose by paying a sum of money 
to the Spanish Government — a common method there 
of wiping off the stain of treason. Oh ! what corrup- 
tion still poisons that unhappy country ! I am now 
come to that part of your letter in which you ask my 
opinion of the Roman Catholic churches and ser- 
vices. There are certainly several things that inspire 
more awe than ours, but the heavy, gaudy, tasteless 
ornaments of them, together with the absurd monkey- 
like actions and motions of their priests, chanting or 
reciting like parrots, while their thoughts are em- 
ployed in anything but devotion, never excite in me 
any feelings but those of derision or disgust. They 
consider the organ a paltry instrument, fit only for 
common days (and even then it is but little played), 
and they seldom introduce its really religious tones 



1 66 Palermo Bay, December ?>th, 1813. 

amidst the numberless violins, violoncellos, &c., &c., 
on which they so furiously scrape. Their grand days 
of music in Spain are called Funciones, one of which 
I saw at Seville, perhaps at the finest cathedral in 
the world — but any great fete in Spanish is called 
Funcion — a ball, fireworks, a night of illumination in 
a theatre, &c., &c. You touch upon a tender string 
when you say how delighted I must have been with 
Seville. I cannot forgive John and Clive for having 
deprived me of seeing Lisbon, and they bullied me 
again at Seville, for they would only stay there three 
rainy days, and ten, at least, are necessary to see all 
its fine buildings. The Duquesa de Goa's daughter 
did not improve on acquaintance ; she is an affected 
little puss, and her mother a great admirer of Soult 
and his countrymen — I wish they would make a few 
examples in Spain of such characters. I have seen 
two vintages, but as they did not strike me as being 
either pretty or interesting, it never occurred to me 
to mention them. I have never seen the Inquisition 
anywhere — idle enough of us ! The mule we left lame 
between Salamanca and Valladolid, recovered and 
joined us while we were at Salamanca the second 
time ; after various adventures, and just before both our 



Palermo Bay, December Zth, 1813. 167 

muleteers decamped with a great many dollars — a 
strange mixture of honesty and roguery! John's 
servant remained at Oporto with most of our heavy 
baggage, and went by sea from thence to Cadiz. I 
remarked most of the things you cite from "Jacob's 
Travels :" the geraniums were in flower in the hedges 
of Chiclana when we passed them in January; but 
the beauty of that little town is almost destroyed by 
the French. I do not know the Oleander. Rice is 
not grown now in Malaga, but they continue the 
growth of the sugar-cane : I think I mentioned this in 
my letter from thence, but this letter you say has 
never reached you. I am glad my account of the 
Grandees' ball amused you. I don't believe Charles 
is quite right about the Duchess of Osuna ; she was 
formerly very fond of the French, and of French 
manners, but ever since the Revolution of 1808 she 
and her family have proved themselves very steady 
patriots ; she is a great intrigante, and far from an 
amiable woman, but clever, and a good Spaniard. 
God bless you my, dear parents. 

&c., &c., &c. 
Finished the loth of December. 
December i^ih. — I have just learnt that the packet 



1 68 Palermo Bay^ December i^th, 1813. 

for England is not yet gone, having waited for Lord 
William Bentinck's letters. I should have written to 
Lucy had I not thought it had sailed several days 
ago. I enclose letters for Orlando, and Gaily Knight.^ 
Lord William Bentinck is not yet returned, and I have 
nothing to add. How glorious is the news from all 
parts ! There is a report here that Admiral Young 
has taken the Scheldt Fleet — twelve sail of the line ; 
I hope it may prove true. The fall of Pampluna is a 
great point gained. I hope we shall soon have a good 
account of Suchet. If my box of books should ever 
arrive in England, you had better open it, as it contains 
my early journals, which may amuse you, and I am 
not aware that they mention anything to shock female 
delicacy; if they do, pray pardon me. You must 
consider this sheet a P.S. to my last long letter. God 
bless you once more, my dear parents. 

• The late Henry Gaily Knight, Esq., M.P. 



\ 





Palermo, 
January \st^ 1814. 

MUST begin, my dear father and 
mother, by wishing you a happy New 
Year ; this is the second New Year's 
day that we have not passed together, 
and one more remains yet, but the fourth I trust we 
shall all be united again at Weston. You, my dear 
mother, I conceive to be now at Long! eat, where I 
trust you are enjoying yourself; my father, I suppose, 
is in Ireland, and will, I guess, pass this day at Mount 
Shannon. I am passing mine quietly enough at this 
moment, but we are going to dine with Lord William 
at four o'clock, as there is to be a drawing room at 
six, at which we are to be presented. But I must go 
back a little and write regularly, or I shall forget 
many things. The packet sailed at last I think on the 

z 



170 Palermo, January ist, 18 14. 

22nd, by which I sent three envelopes, two of which 
only I numbered ; Lord William had not then returned, 
but he arrived on the night of the 24th. I have got 
three of your letters from him, Nos. 31, 32, and 33, for 
which I trust I am as grateful as I ought to be for 
your very great kindness in writing so fully and so 
regularly. I begin to despair of the eight letters of 
yours which I mentioned were missing in my last ; 
the three directed to Stuart I have no idea of ever 
getting, but I cannot help thinking the other five are 
in some drawer of Lord William's, particularly as the 
three I have got from him have been given to me at 
different times. I am sure if Graham (his secretary) 
would give himself the trouble of looking, he would 
find more. No. 32 I received the first day after their 
return ; No. 33 a day or two after, and I wondered 
what had befallen No. 31, when last night at the 
Opera he gave it to me. I asked if a packet had come 
in, he said, " No." I asked, " How then did this letter 
come ? " He replied, " I don't know.'* On opening it 
I found it to be No. 31. This almost convinces me 
he might find more by looking back for them ; it is 
possible the packet from Malta may bring me some. 
How tired you must be with this never-ceasing theme ! 



Palermo, January i^/, 1814. 171 

but you will conceive what an interesting one it is to 
me, and you will be interested yourself in the fate of 
your letters. 

They excused us three days of our quarantine, and 
we trod on terra firma with considerable glee the 
24th. I imagine Christmas-day was the cause of the 
indulgence we experienced. We were very fortunate 
to get on shore that day, for through the kindness of 
our friends Douglas and Dashwood (the former is 
Secretary of Legation, the latter, as you know, Pel- 
ham's brother-in-law), we were invited to a grand y?/^ 
given by the Principe Butera, the First Baron (or 
Duke of Norfolk) of Sicily ; he is rich, but immensely 
in debt, keeps open house, chiefly for the English, and 
seems very good-humoured and hospitable. His 
palace is very large, and the suite of rooms magnifi- 
cent, and furnished in a very costly manner ; we were 
about fifty at dinner, more than half English, and above 
one-third ladies. Many of the Sicilian nobles have 
adopted English hours, and the hour of dinner was 
nominally six ; we sat down aboutseven ! The dining 
room is immense, I think it must exceed 100 feet in 
length, and 50 in breadth and height ; it was lit by 
364 candles upon the tables and in the chandeliers ; 



1/2 Palermo, yanua7'y \st, 1814. 

there were two tables laid out, one for the dinner, and 
the other for the dessert — this has a grand effect, 
and I believe is almost peculiar to that house ; we 
had even fresh napkins at the second table. We had 
not a service of plate, but yet the decorations of the 
tables were handsome. The dinner abounded in 
" quelque-choses," but there was nothing to satisfy 
an Englishman's stomach ; the only substantial things 
were two turkeys, and I succeeded in getting part of 
the leg of one of them ; the soup, and some of the 
dishes I tasted were not bad, but quite cold. There 
was hock, claret, and several Sicilian wines — some of 
which I thought pretty good ; there were some excel- 
lent ices. We did not sit long after dinner ; a great 
many people now came, who did not dine there, and 
after coffee we went into the concert-room, where we 
heard some good music ; after which there were some 
English country dances, and waltzing. There was no 
regular supper, but cold meats, ices, &c. &c., in the 
refreshment room. We had not less than ten rooms 
open, and as brilliantly lighted in proportion to their 
sizes as the dining room. Prince Butera is a man of 
sixty at least, but the princess (who is a Neapolitan, 
and his second wife) is young, and by many thought 



Palermo, JatiMary u/, 1814. 173 

very pretty — I do not admire her. This place is very 
scarce in female beauty, and I have not seen one 
really pretty woman yet ; the party did not last very 
late. I will not attempt to give any opinion of the 
Sicilians at present, I will defer it for a future letter 
when I shall have seen more of them. We have dined 
with the Dashwoods, Orby Hunters, Douglas, Lord 
William Bentinck, General McFarlane (second in 
command here), and with a Chevalier Sauvaire, as he 
calls himself — he is a Portuguese, and his estates are 
in the Madeiras ; he is younger than me, was edu- 
cated at Oxford, and was for a short time in the loth 
dragoons ; he has left the English service, and is 
travelling, as he calls it — but, in fact, residing in 
different towns ; he is good-natured, foolish, and ex- 
travagant, fond of dress, and a servile imitator of 
the English libertines of the day ; his friends find his 
dinners and his opera box very convenient ; from his 

name he must be of French extraction. H 1 

having found a nature so congenial to his own, has 

struck up an intimacy with him. H 1 has another 

friend here — the Prince of Lardaria (who, by the bye, 
has a younger brother in England, who, it is said, is 
to marry Miss Johnston, of Hanover Square). Prince 



174 Palermo, January isl, 1814. 

L. is a youngish man, good looking, well dressed, and 
a great imitator of the English ; he has gentlemanly- 
manners ; but if one-fourth they say of him be true, 
he is the most unprincipled libertine that ever existed. 
He has been many years married — but they under- 
stand each other perfectly ; indeed, this sort of agree- 
ment is pretty general here ; he talks of going to 
England very soon, where I dare say he will take 

amazingly. H 1 likes his horses and carriages, 

and they suit each other exactly. / 

We went to an inn on landing, where we remained 
a few days ; we got very tolerable bed-rooms, but we 
were starved with cold — for there was no fire-place, 
and the wind came in on all sides ; we only dined 
there once. The day before yesterday we removed to 
a very good lodging ; it is the second floor of a house 
in the principal street, called the Via Toledo, or Cas- 
saro, which, with another — the Via Macqueda — cros- 
sing it at right angles, divide the town into four 
distinct parts. We were obliged to engage this 
lodging for two months, for 125 dollars. Its furni- 
ture consists only of some tables and chairs, and 
three bedsteads for the servants; one of the rooms 
has a fire-place, which is a great comfort, for 



Palermo, January i^/, 1814. 175 

the weather is very cold, though not quite equal to 
England. We dine to-morrow with Prince Butera ; 
Monday with General Spencer; Tuesday with 
Commissary Vaughan, whose wife is niece to Mrs. 
Orby Hunter, and daughter to Mrs. Musters ; Wednes- 
day we dine with Major Kenah, D. A. General, by 
which time I hope we shall have some more invitations. 
John Cobb is quite well. I enclose a letter from him 
to his son Jack,^ from whom you sent him one that has 
pleased him very much — he showed it to me, it is very 
well written, and most of the words rightly spelt. 
The Dashwoods have been very civil and kind to me, 
I like him very much, she has quite lost her shyness 
since she married, which is astonishing. I think she 
was one of the shyest girls I ever knew. She has a 
slow, odd way of speaking, but seems clever and plea- 
sant; she is very fond of music, and I have heard 
same very good at her house ; she is still very thin, 
but seems in tolerable health though not stout ; they 
have made the tour of the island, and she likes travel- 
ling. They hope soon to be able to go to Italy, and 
afterwards to Germany, Switzerland, and France, and 

' Now (1875) a gardener at Weston. 



176 Palermo, Jamiary isf, 18 14. 

propose to return to England in the autumn of 18 16. 
There is plenty of Sicilian scandal, but the only 
English I hear, is of Mrs. O. H. and a younger son 

of Lord S n. The Archbishop died suddenly 

yesterday, which caused a great sensation among the 
superstitious Sicilians; they say he was a bad one, 
and an inveterate enemy to England. Palermo is a 
dirty town, and most of the streets are crooked and 
narrow — this and the Via Macqueda are wider, straight, 
and handsome, and several houses looking over the 
Marina to the Bay are particularly so ; and there are 
some very pretty ones to the south just outside the 
town ; here most of the English live, and the view 
from their windows is beautiful. The Palace is an 
ugly old building ; the cathedral a large pile of patch- 
work, it has some handsome marble pillars. Lord 
William Bentinck's house is not a good one, but it 
looks to the bay. General McFarlane's is a capital 
one, but it is in a street. The palace of the Prince of 
Belmonte is handsome, his and Prince Butera's are 
the only ones I have yet seen ; their rooms are much 
finer and more comfortable than those in Spain. 
There is a pretty little opera house here, but the 
opera is very moderate ; there are two other theatres 



Palermo, January T^rd, 1814. 177 

which I hear are abominable. We went to Prince 
Butera's again last Friday evening ; he has music and 
dancing every Friday ; his are the only Sicilian parties 
I hear of. There are public rooms over the Opera, 
where there are always conversazioni ; the Sicilians 
subscribe, but the English are admitted gratis. Mrs. 
Dashwood has little music parties every Monday. 
Books are so very dear here that I shall buy none but 
what I absolutely want ; I cannot hear of a good map 
of Sicily. We have got an Italian master, an Abate 
recommended by Dashwood — he seems a good little 
man ; there is no Tuscan or Roman here, so that 
you cannot meet with the pure pronunciation. 

January ^rd. — I have this morning received your 
other letter of the loth Oct., my dear mother; it was 
negligent of Gibbs's people not to send it to me sooner 
— as it happened, you see, I got that which you sent 
through Fraser much the soonest. It could not cause 
any delay to send it through him, as the packets re- 
main long enough at Gibraltar to admit of letters 
being opened and forwarded ; don't send any 
more through Lord William, ^ as I believe he will 

' Lord William Bentinck. 
A A 



178 Palermo, January 3^/, 18 14. 

soon quit Sicily on an expedition ; send them after 
the receipt of this to Mr. Hamilton, directing to me 
to the care of the consul here, Mr. Fagan, and after 
the middle of March to the care of the consul at 
Malta. 

We went to court on Saturday, and I never saw 
anything so poor or so stupid ; you do not kiss hands 
on being presented, only bow. The Prince Regent 
was in boots and regimentals ; he is a little, fat, silly- 
looking man. There were besides of the royal family, 
the Princess Regent, who is also a little fatty, but has a 
pleasing countenance, and when very young must have 
been pretty — she is his second wife, and an Infanta 
of Spain ; the Duke and Duchess, and Mademoiselle 
d'Orleans, and the Prince Regent's eldest daughter, 
who is a child ; the Duchesse d'Orleans is very plain, 
and daughter to the King of Sicily ; we had previously 
been introduced to the duke, who had some days 
before desired Douglas to bring us to him — he is a 
very pleasing-mannered man ; I never heard anything 
more perfect than the English he speaks — ^how very 
uncommon in a Frenchman ! There were two or 
three ladies-in-waiting, but no others came to the 
drawing-room ; the Princess and the other ladies were 



Palermo, January 5//^, 1814. 179 

dressed as at a common evening-party, some of them, 
indeed, had hats on. There were a few men at court, 
those in uniform had boots, and were without powder; 
a few old courtiers were in full-dress coats. The 12th 
of this month is the king's birthday, and I fancy the 
drawing-room will be better attended. Prince Butera 
gave us a very good dinner yesterday, and quite a 
substantial one, we were about thirty persons; his 
way of living, and hospitality, are quite magnificent. 

You were very lucky in hearing of Orlando through 
William Russell — what an excellent letter O.'s is, 
and how good you were to take the trouble of copy- 
ing it for me. I am surprised and sorry that Wol- 
ryche and Lucy have given up their idea of travel- 
ling ; I am rejoiced, however, that the cause of it is 
her improved spirits — ^her last letter to me was by no 
means written in spirits — but I trust that was only a 
momentary melancholy. William Childe gives me a 
long account of Madocks's affair. 

January ^th. — We were driven yesterday four-in- 
hand by Prince Lardaria to see Bagheria, a village nine 
miles off, where many of the nobility have country 
houses ; they cover the gentle rise of the promontory 
which divides the Bays of Palermo and Termini, and 



i8o Palermo, January ^th, 1814. 

command very pretty views — most of the Lipari 
Islands are seen, too, from thence. The houses them- 
selves are in bad taste, and destitute of trees, the 
gardens are laid out in parterres, and full of busts and 
statues ; one house belonging to the Prince of Pala- 
gonia, is justly styled, I think by Swinburne, the 
Palace of Folly ; the walls are covered in all directions 
with monsters, the most extraordinary that man could 
imagine, carved in stone ; Swinburne saw it in the late 
Prince's time — this man has pulled down three-fourths 
of them, but he has left enough to commemorate his 
father's folly. We are going to dine on Monday with 
the Due d'Orleans. 

There is an agreeable Frenchman here, of the name 
of Montrond, whom you may have known at Paris ; he 
was banished by Bonaparte, and went to Falmouth; 
our Government w^ould not permit him to remain in 
England, and after a short stay at Falmouth he came 
here, where he arrived eight months ago, bringing 
letters of recommendation from several Englishmen 
who knew him at Paris, among the rest, I think, Lord 
Grey and Lord Holland ; there is also a pleasant 
Frenchwoman here — a Madame Monjoie, who is 
attendant upon Mdlle. d'Orleans — she is unmarried. 



Palermo, January 5//^, 1814. 181 

but a Chanoinesse, they both live much with the 
English. Madame Monjoie sings very well, and is 
exceedingly good-humoured, and clever. Montrond 
is a well-informed man, but a true Frenchman, and 
terribly fond of ridicule; it is amusing to hear him 
abuse Bonaparte, whom he abhors and despises as 
much as he doats upon France. He says, " Est-il pos- 
sible qu'il y ait encore un seul homme en Angle- 
terre, qui pense que Bonaparte est un grand homme } 
c'est le plus grand fou qu'il y a dans le monde," &c. &c. 
We dine to-day with the Dashwoods, and to-morrow 
with Sir John Dalrymple, inspector of the Italian 
Levey, who has a pretty little wife, an Isle of Wight 
woman. Lord William's secretary, Graham,^ went off 
suddenly a few days ago in the " Furieuse " frigate ; 
he got a commission in the Italian Levey — became 
Lord William's aide-de-camp, and disappeared all 
in a minute ; it is imagined he is gone on a military 
mission to Naples. Secret expeditions are on foot ; 
General Montresor goes with the first division ; but 
it is expected Lord William himself will go with the 
second. Every mouth is full of conjectures as to the 

^ The late Right Honourable Sir James Graham, Bart., M.P. 



1 82 Palermo, Jmiuary ^tk, 1814. 

destination ; I hope it may come to some good. 
Every day I hear Sir J. M.'s conduct more and more 
abused — how could ministers send such a man either 
here or to Spain ? 

Adieu, my dear parents, 

&c., &c. 





Palermo, 
February ^h, 1814. 




Y some ill luck, my dearest mother, the 
packet that arrived here on the loth 
January, thirty days from Falmouth, 
brought me no letters from you or any 
one else, thus the latest date I have received from 
you is the 31st of October — an age ago. Another 
packet came in three days back, but as Lord Wm. 
Bentinck sailed the preceding evening for Naples (to 
whom I conceive my letters are under cover), I must 
wait either his return or that of some vessel ere I can 
have the satisfaction of hearing from you. I must, 
however, now tell you that the two first letters you 
wrote me in August and September, 18 12 (Nos. i and 
2) have at last found me — how. Heaven only knows ! 



184 Palermo, February \th, 18 14. 

Captain Mowbray, of the " Repulse," who arrived the 
other day from Mahon, received them from Lieutenant 
St. John, of the " Revenge " (Charles's friend, who, by 
the way, I am happy to hear, is appointed to Admiral 
Legge's ship), and this is all I know of these long-lost 
letters. Would to Heaven that all the others may 
some time or other reach me thus ! I assure you 
they gave me great satisfaction, notwithstanding 
their old dates. Some persons to whom they alluded 
of course called up my feelings a good deal, and made 
me shed tears. Some amiable traits of dear Harriet 
brought back her loss to my heart with all its bitter- 
ness. Dear angelic cousin ! where shall I ever find 
so amiable a friend again ! but I will not proceed. 

But indeed 

I am much happier now, and have lately gone on 
in society quite comfortably. I have found great 
pleasure in the quiet society of the Dashwoods, whom 
I like better every day ; she is an amiable little 
creature. I am so angry with myself for having 
weakly suffered you to think me so unhappy. I 
would fain now persuade you to be comfortable about 
me ; indeed, indeed, I am quite another person from 
what I was a week or two back. I really now enjoy 



Palermo, February /^th, 1814. 185 

myself very tolerably, and I trust that the tour of this 
island will amuse me and quite restore my happiness. 
Herbert is plaguing poor Clive a great deal, which 
keeps us here at present, and may yet detain us some 
weeks. It grieves us to remain here wasting so much 
time, but this evil is not without its good, for the 
weather has been miserable, and is likely to continue 
so all this month and part of March, and the roads 
are nearly, if not quite, impassable from the heavy 
rains, so that our journey at present would be quite a 
penance ; yet I confess I grudge the time I lose at 
this stupid place instead of spending it at home, where 
I know your affection wishes for my return. I am 
getting on in the meantime with my Italian, but am 
sorry to find that my fears about Spanish were too well 
grounded. Already I bungle and find great difficulty 
in speaking the latter, while at the same time it con- 
founds my Italian. What would I not give to speak 
French, Italian, and Spanish well ! but I despair of 
it, my head is not clear enough ; however, I hope I 
shall always be able to read them, and that will be 
something. I hope you have got my Spanish music 
from John, and the shawls from Bob Spencer. I was 
astonished to see John's arrival in England about 

B B 



1 86 Palermo, February ^thy 1814. 

three weeks after he left us at Mahon — htflew home, 
on what wings I know not, but I suppose on those of 
political ambition. I saw by the same paper that 
William was appointed an A.D.C. to Lord Welling- 
ton. I have received a letter from Pelham written so 
long ago as the 8th of December ; it is in answer to 
mine from Mahon, and, finally, puts me quite at ease 

about not getting home to him Don't let what 

I have said of Herbert go beyond yourselves. Clive 
has still some hopes of getting him away, but I con- 
fess / have none. His tie at present here is the 
Princess Butera. What a hard thing it is to be linked 
to a person for whom I have scarcely a grain of 
feeling left ! yet I feel sincerely for Lord and Lady 
Pembroke, who are miserable about him, and will do 

my utmost to save him You can't think how 

hurt poor Clive is. Pelham has received the books 
Clive sent him, which went (or ought to have done so) 
from Gibraltar by the same conveyance as John's and 
mine, — his were for Lord Holland. It is a most cruel 
case losing them. I have a letter from Fraser of the 
22nd January, in which he tells me he has made every 
inquiry of his people, who say that what things did 
not go with our servant to Alicante in the " Mermaid," 



Palermo, February \th, 1814. 187 

Captain Dunn (viz., our travelling baggage), went 
home to England in the " Tortoise " store ship, as I 
wrote you word from Mahon. He says there is no- 
thing of ours left in the dockyard store-room. The 
only way I can account for it is as follows : — the 
moment we left Gibraltar we all went with Fraser to 
look over our things in the store-room there ; we 
wrote directions for our three boxes of books (as like- 
wise John for a box of segars) on cards, and nailed 
them lightly on. Fraser promised us that these 
directions should be painted on the boxes ; now, if 
he forgot this, John's cards and mine may have been 
knocked off and Clive's not, and thus, while Pelham's 
arrived safe, ours may be still on board or in the 
Custom House without a direction, and therefore 
unclaimed. Mine is a deal box about three feet long 
and two wide, with thongs of hide nailed round it. If 
there is such a one unclaimed and it could be opened, 
some of the books, if not all, have my name in them, 
and it could be thus discovered. John's box of books 
is much like mine, I believe. My journals are a cruel 
loss. In one of the papers by the last packet I hear 
my father is said to have gone over to Lord Clan- 
carty in Holland. I am delighted to hear it. He 



1 88 Palermo, February A^lh, 1814. 

will be much interested, and if he is gone ^as I suppose 
he is) only for a short time, I can't help hoping he 
has taken Henry with him. Dear Hal! what a 
pleasure it would be to him. 

I am very sorry to hear of all these militia regi- 
ments volunteering ; I hope the Shropshire ^ has been 
wiser. Heavens! are not our exertions in the common 
cause great enough already, without endangering our 
Constitution thus t Have we not a larger proportion 
of men fighting compared with our population than 
any other nation ; besides paying the expenses of 
Europe } Surely the successes of the allies have over- 
turned steady John Bull's head ; you cannot think 
how frightened I am at home politics ; you would 
laugh to see me such a strenuous oppositionist. Now 
is the time for your Whitbreads to be of real use to 
their country in setting up popular cries, and they 
seem to be struck dumb and quite stupefied by the 
wonderful successes on the Continent ; — even there 
again, I have a hundred doubts and fears — I am sus- 
picious of Austria. I am sure she is not well inclined 



' Lord Bradford commanded the Shropshire miUtia. 



Palermo, February 5M, 1814. 189 

to the general good ; depend upon it she will prove 
ambitious and unjust. Oh ! for the death of that 
arch-fiend Bonaparte ! then, indeed, my fears would 
in a great measure subside. I have written some of 
my new politics to my Aunt Bath,^ whose surprise 
I expect you will hear. 

February ^th. — Nothing yet from Naples; but I 
must get my letters ready, I have really nothing to 
tell you about ourselves ; we continue dining with the 
persons I named in my last letter, and our evenings 
pass at the opera or at Prince Butera's ; lately, how- 
ever, we have had some dances at General Gosselin's, 
Mrs. Vaughan's, and Douglas's, — generally it is the 
English country dance, with sometimes a reel, a little 
waltzing, and a bad quadrille. I don't find the 
Sicilians improve on acquaintance in any way ; a 
little Spanish woman, wife of the Charge-d'affaires, 
beats them all hollow — the pretty, graceful little 
figure is quite a pleasure to look at here, but her 
husband is so jealous of her that he never lets her 
show herself; I have only seen her twice, at the 
Princess Butera's and at Douglas's. The Princess 

' Isabella, Marchioness of Bath. 



190 Palermo, February loik, 18 14. 

Paterno, a very famed Sicilian, has been a very fine 
woman, but she is passed. Our weather lately has 
been wretchedly cold and damp. News from Naples 
is anxiously expected. I believe half the English 
here will remove there the moment it is open to 
them. The expedition remains in statu quo; they 
expect to garrison some Neapolitan towns as a 
security for the treaty. Mrs. Cadogan and Lady 
Louisa were here for a long while ; they went to 
Trieste a short time before our arrival, and are now, 
I believe, at Vienna. I understand they write that it 
is a most stupid place. I really believe we travellers 
think all places stupid while we are at them. You 
have no idea of Lady Louisa's popularity here ; the 
whole army to a man are in love with her. I found 
that I committed treason by saying her figure was 
not good ; she is thought the most beautiful, as well 
as the most charming of beings ; she accompanied 
Mrs. Dashwood in her tour of the island, and she 
seems to have formed a very just opinion of her — she 
is certainly a clever creature, and lays herself out to 
please. 

February lOth. — Contrary winds have prevented the 
packet from coming round from Malta, and in the 



Palermo, February lotk, 1814. 191 

mean time Lord William has returned from Naples — 
he came on the 8th, and I had yesterday the satisfac- 
tion, my dearest mother, of receiving your letters, Nos. 
34> 35, and 36, from the 13th November to the 27th 
December. I am cruelly disappointed to find that 
Charles has again returned to England unpromoted. 
Your anxiety about Orlando must have continued 
some days after you closed your letter to me ; the 
gazette, I think, was in the paper of the 30th ; those 
brought by the last packet reach fortunately to the 
31st, so that I had the satisfaction of looking over the 
list of killed and wounded. This by-the-bye reminds 
me of the battles of the preceding month ; in the list 
of which I was sorry to see that both Mortimer 
and Meyrick were wounded — the former, poor fellow ! 
I think, was severely so — I shall be anxious to hear 
more of him from you ; I wonder you did not 
mention him in your letter from Longleat. Do not 
for an instant suppose, my beloved mother, that when 
I say I wonder at this, or at your not having acknow- 
ledged my letter from Madrid, I am capable of mean- 
ing a reproach — good heavens ! how far otherwise ! 
I am surprised, and most grateful to you for writing 
so much and so fully as you do. A thousand, thou- 



192 Palermo, February \oth, 1814. 

sand thanks for these last three letters, and for the 
almanack, which is a great treasure, and I looked for- 
ward to its arrival with pleasure, for I knew you 
would send me one. You enclose letters from dear 
Lucy and Henry, give him my love and many thanks ; 
if I have time before the packet sails, I will write to 
him ; I have written to Lucy, therefore I send no 
message to her. No, my dear mother, I have not 
been able to take the sacrament ; I believe it was ad- 
ministered here on Christmas day, but I only landed 
the preceding day, and I was ignorant of our having a 
chapel here till it was too late ; I have, however, had 
the satisfaction of going to church every Sunday, and 
after so long a deprivation, you cannot think how 
great a one it is. Lord William has made a treaty 
with Murat, as you will know ; the English may now 
go to Naples, and the Dashwoods, Orby Hunters, 
Lord Frederick Montague, and Stourton, will all go 
when opportunities offer ; Clive and I may, perhaps, 
run over to look at it for three or four days, if any one 
offers to take us. Herbert is kept in leading-strings 
by Princess Butera. I thought you were mistaken about 
the wine, which was with Clive's — I did not expect it 
to go home even by the same ship ; I am glad my 



Palermo y February lotk, 1814. 193 

father's has arrived safe, and I hope it will prove as 
good as it promised to be. I believe Costello, from 
whom I got it, is an honest man. The arrival of my 
books, too, is a real jubilee to me ; you will be sadly 
bored with my journal ; I wish I could point out to 
you the interesting parts to read — three-fourths of it 
must be very tiresome. I have written to Fraser to tell 
him of their arrival, and I hope my letter will find him 
in England. I wish my father may have been able to 
find General Trant ; his kindness to us was very great. 
Alas ! I was right in fearing that the melancholy style 
of some of my letters would give you pain ; I have 
been weak, but I will try to be more firm. Your last 
letters contain a great deal about dear, dear Harriet ; 
but I will not allow myself to comment upon them — 
I am now quite convinced that nothing does me so 
much harm as allowing myself to write all my 
feelings on that melancholy subject, the violence 
of them having considerably abated, I have more 
command over myself, and will endeavour to 
use that command. You say my letters lately have 
given you but little description of the country, 
&c., I have seen ; but, in truth, though other subjects 
may in a great measure have occupied my thoughts, 

C c 



\ 



194 Palermo, February \oth, 1814. 

and conduced to my silence on such subjects, yet I 
assure you I have seen little worth noticing, compared 
to the time that has elapsed since we were at Madrid. 
At Valencia, certainly, there was much to interest, 
particularly in the high cultivation of that district, 
and this I think I described ; so I did the beautiful 
country we rode through to the north of Majorca ; at 
Mahon, God knows there is nothing that deserves one 
line of remarks, neither do I see much here to amuse 
or interest ; however, perhaps I do not find inter- 
est in what some months ago would have occupied 
my mind considerably ; but since I left Castille I 
have not met with any interesting /^<?//<?, and this is 
what always delights me. How you would enjoy the 
Madrillanians ! I am glad the shawls are arrived safe, 
and I hope you will like them. I must have ex- 
pressed myself ill about the music ; that which I sent 
from Mahon I got copied at Madrid, feeling how un- 
certain it was whether the gay Isnardi would think 
any more about his promise of sending you some 
from Cadiz. How fortunate Robert Gunning is to go 
out with Lord Clancarty as his secretary. John was 
very wrong to tell my father I was the worse for my 
travels — but I suppose you won't believe me. Clive 



Palermo y February \oth, 1814. 195 

is writing you a letter, and I hope he will meet with 
more credit. We are both as anxious as ever to see 
Greece, notwithstanding the events on the continent, 
and feeling that never was any one more deceived 
than you have been by my mischievous cousin. I 
hope I may consider myself at liberty to pursue my 
travels there, as your request is only made on the 
supposition that I am suffering from them ; but I 
promise you, that should I feel the worse for travelling 
in Greece, I will go no farther than Athens. I wish I 
may be able to persuade Clive to substitute Germany 
for that stupid country Russia. Clive has got some 
Sicihan agates for my Aunt Bath, and both he and I 
have bought collections of agates and marbles for 
ourselves — many of the former are beautiful ; they 
will go home with John's servant. I shall likewise 
send by him the Spanish chain I have bought for 
Lucy, also another box of Spanish books bought at 
Valencia, and a few Italian from hence, as well as the 
print of Guzman the Good, with some maps and plans, 
I have bought here two necklaces made of a sort of 
shell, and cut in imitation of cameos ; they are poor 
things, not worth their cost, but I am fond of any- 
thing peculiar to a country ; they make them also at 



196 PalennOf February loth, 18 14. 

Rome, and they say much better. Lord William 
Bentinck expects Lady William next month ; I hear 
she has been unwell, which is partly the cause of her 
returning to this warmer climate. 

I have written such a long letter that I shall say 
little more on politics. I look forward to peace, if 
made now with Bonaparte, as the death-warrant of 
Europe; I am ashamed of our having treated with 
Murat ; he cannot but be a Frenchman in heart, and 
we shall suffer for it. The revolution in Holland 
does not go on as I could wish. I am convinced there 
is a strong Fretich party, and if we make peace with 
that fiend Bonaparte, one of the first events of the 
next war would be the recovery of that country. Oh 
that the spirit of poor Moreau could rise and prevent 
the mad policy of Austria from taking effect ! Clive, 
Dashwood, and myself, went on such a wild shooting 
scheme the other day that I am ashamed to give you 
an account of it, — we were rightly served for our folly 
by having no sport. We started immediately from 
Mrs. Vaughan's ball, went near twenty miles, part of 
the way in a carriage and the rest on horseback ; we 
began to shoot at daylight, and left off at one o'clock, 
about nine miles from this place, from whence we 



Palermo y February \oth, 1814. 197 

walked home to dinner ; the last three miles it rained 
torrents, and we were drenched, besides being com- 
pletely knocked up. We went, in the carriage to a 
villa of Prince Butera's at Bagheria, where we break- 
fasted, and the night being very dark we proceeded 
by torch-light to the Chasse, about ten miles from the 
villa, on miserable horses, over mountains and roads 
unfit for human beings. At the Chasse we had about 
thirty men on foot (twelve of whom had guns, which 
was a hard thing upon us) and twenty dogs of all 
descriptions ; we beat along the sides of a small river, 
and saw only a very few woodcocks and two snipes ; 
Clive had but two shots and he killed his woodcock 
and snipe ; Dashwood missed a woodcock, and I 
killed one, the only shot I got ; the other twelve guns 
killed two woodcocks and some unhappy blackbirds 
and thrushes, larks, &c., which they considered fine 
fun, and were astonished we did not fire at them. 
Our sally forth from Villa Butera by torch-light in a 
night dark as chaos, accompanied by all these people 
(shouting like savages) and dogs, was the only amusing 
part of our day ; the badness of the road, however, 
soon made us tire of this, and we were from half-past 
four till half-past eight reaching the river. 

Adieu, my dearest mother, &c., &c. 



198 Palermo ^ February loik, 18 14. 

We dined yesterday at the Prince Villafranca's ; he 
is one of the Secretaries of State, and a very good- 
natured man. .They talk of his going as Minister to 
England next spring. He and the princess, though 
young, are both uncommonly fat. She is one of the very 
few Sicilian wives whose character is good, and there 
are people who deny it to her. The Prince of Bel- 
monte, who has always been considered as England's 
best friend here, appears to me to be the proudest 
courtier I ever saw. I mean these words to be un- 
derstood in the fullest sense; his manners are so 
French, and there is something in them and in his 
countenance so deceitful, that I am persuaded he hates 
us in his heart most cordially. Few of the Sicilians see 
much of the English, and I believe we are very un- 
popular among the higher orders. 

The perfect ignorance in which Lord William con- 
trives to keep everybody here is quite extraordinary, 
and it is a great merit ; but he has one failing, viz., 
partiality to foreigners, which he carries to an excess. 
There is a certain Catanelli on the staff of the Italian 
Levey who has immense weight with him, I believe 
he has talent, but he makes himself very obnoxious to 
the English in various ways, and gives himself in- 



PalermOy February \oth, 1814. 199 

tolerable airs. He is supposed to be the planner of 
all these expeditions, by the last of which we seem to 
have made ourselves ridiculous enough. The navy 
make a high joke of it. In short, I confess I think 
the English have several just causes of complaint of 
this sort, which I lament, because Lord William's 
character stands so high in all other respects. Surely 
after all Lord Wellington has performed with British 
generals, engineers, &c., &c., it is hard to prefer 
foreigners to them. What a bloody, but what a 
glorious campaign this has been all over Europe ! on 
what a pinnacle of glory does Great Britain stand ! 
The English are said to be the proudest people on 
earth, but they have a right to be so. Oh for an 
historian worthy of recording to posterity the events 
of the few last years ! But are we not in the midst of 
this good fortune forgetting our liberties and honour } 
Our treaty with Sweden has sullied the latter, and 
these strange Militia Bills are very like resigning the 
former. I am not in England, where the general 
feeling is on fire from the late glorious successes; I 
am in a mean, enslaved little island of the Mediter- 
ranean, where I am more at liberty to reflect coolly 
upon what passes in that Queen of the Atlantic, that 



200 Palermo y February loth^ 1814. 

champion of universal liberty, to which, thanks inex- 
pressible to the Great Creator, I have the happiness 
and glory to belong. They say that the Hereditary 
Prince of Sicily would not sign the treaty with Murat, 
which took Lord William over to Naples. I am 
sorry our Government will have anything to do with 
him. 






Palermo, 
March ind^ 1814. 

HAVE little to say to you, my dear 
mother, this post, and hardly a moment 
for that — the packet sails in a few hours ; 
it arrived yesterday from Malta ; that 
from England, due a week ago, is not yet come in. 
Lord William and the first division of the expedition 
sailed on the 28th ult. We have had incessant rain 
for the last six weeks, but it is fine to-day, and rather 
promises to continue so. Clive and I begin our tour 
of Sicily to-morrow morning. I can say nothing of 
Herbert, but I neither expect nor hope he will go with 
us. I enclose a memorandum of the things I send 
home by John Russell's servant. I hope he will get 
my chain and necklaces safe to Heaton's. I foolishly 

D D 



202 Palermo, March 27idy 1814. 

never thought of taking a memorandum of the con- 
tents of my box of books from Gibraltar, and I was 
equally thoughtless about that which I packed up at 
Valencia, and now I don't think it worth while to un- 
pack it in order to take one. You shall have a full 
account of our tour from Messina ; perhaps I may be 
able to write from Syracuse or Catania. My spirits 
are wonderfully better ; I am more indebted to the 
Dashwoods than I can describe ; there cannot be two 
more amiable beings, and their kindness to me has 
been excessive ; she is really a most superior creature, 
and would suit you particularly. I have some hopes 
of meeting them again. The state of affairs in Italy 
is so uncertain, and so unpleasant, that it is most de- 
sirable they should not go there at present. The 
Orby Hunters have been at Naples some time, and 
we hear they are most uncomfortable, and very 
anxious to be back here. The Dashwoods have just 
thought of a plan which I hope they may execute : it 
is, to go almost immediately by sea to Messina, where 
Mrs. Dash wood would see Lady Sonnes,^ whom she is 
very fond of, and she might either rem.ain with her 

' Sondes. 



Palermo, March 2nd, 18 14. 203 

while Dashwood went to see Syracuse, which he 
missed in his tour, or, if the weather was fine, she 
might accompany him there by sea. From Messina 
they think of going to Zante, and by the Gulf of 
Lepanto to Athens ; afterwards by the Adriatic to 
Vienna, before they go to Italy. The plan seems to 
me a delightful one, and very practicable, and it is of 
consequence that she should not remain at Palermo, 
which decidedly disagrees with her. Lord William 
has pledged himself to the ministers here to be back 
for the meeting of their new parliament early in 
April ; it is quite absurd to see what babies they all 
are without him. 

God bless you, my beloved parents, 
&c., &c. 






GiRGENTI, 

March 15//^, 1814. 

WILL write you a short letter, my dear 
mother, from hence, although I am quite 
uncertain where I may be able to send 
it from, but having a little leisure time 
this evening, I can't employ it better than in writing 
to the best of mothers. We did not leave Palermo till 
the 4th, as our mules and horses did not appear on 
the morning of the 3rd until so late, that we feared 
not being able to accomplish the day's journey; our 
first and fourth days were rather bad and rainy, but the 
rest have been fine ; owing, however, to the long and 
heavy rains that had previously fallen incessantly for 
many weeks, we found the roads (which are only 
horse paths at best), in such a deep and almost im- 



Girgenti, March 15//^, 1 8 14. 205 

passable state as an Englishman at home is really in- 
capable of conceiving. Rivers, properly speaking, do 
not exist in Sicily, but we found the rivulets (very few 
of which have bridges) so swelled, deep, and rapid, as 
to be nearly dangerous. Between Trapani and Marsala 
we travelled miles together across flooded rivulets, 
with a deep, tenacious mud at bottom, and the water 
so thick and rapid that you could not see the bottom, 
and suddenly changing from being shallow to a great 
depth. That day two of the baggage mules fell in 
the water, and my bed, John Cobb's, the cantine, and 
some other things, were completely soaked ; we were 
obliged to stay a day at Marsala to dry them, which 
we fortunately succeeded completely in doing as it 
proved a very fine one — and a fine day in these 
countries is what you hardly know, unless you saw it 
in the south of France when you were there. We 
have generally gone to the locandas (or inns as they 
are intended to be) in Sicily, and the one we were at 
in Marsala was a good one of its kind, but yet the 
bed they made up for me the first night was so bad 
and so filthy that I could not sleep, and the next 
night I slept in my own ; though that very morning 
the mattress and every part of it was as wet as if it had 



2o6 Girgefiii, March i^lh, 1814. 

just been taken out of a river — and such is a Medi- 
terranean sun, that I found it perfectly dry. From 
Marsala to this place we met with no particular 
accident, the River Platani, between Sciacca and 
Girgenti, was still so deep and rapid on the nth, that 
we were forced to have men with strong poles to go 
through with us, and show us the ford, and that was 
the first day it had been passable for months — no 
small good fortune on our parts ! We were to have 
proceeded again this morning on our journey, but it 
rained such torrents that we were obliged to defer pro- 
ceeding till to-morrow ; we were called at half-past 
five for that purpose, and you will hardly suppose it 
possible that it should be necessary to rise at that 
hour to perform a journey of eighteen miles. I will 
now return to Palermo, and tell you our days* 
journeys : on the 4th instant we went to Alcamo, 
thirty-one miles, but most of it good road ; on the 
5 th we intended to reach Trapani, thirty miles, but 
were soon undeceived, and were obliged to stop at a 
farm-house half way, where we had the good fortune 
of being invited by a Sicilian, who happened to be 
travelling that road, and knew its possessor, otherwise 
we might have slept on the hills ; our muleteers 



Girgentiy March 15///, 1 8 14. 207 

wanted to cheat us finely ; on coming to the first ford, 
we found it impassable, and they declared there was 
no other, nor a bridge, on the whole river — however, 
we found this to be a lie, from our above-mentioned 
friend, who conducted us through some vineyards 
knee-deep in mud, to a bridge about two miles lower 
down. We went out of our road a little that day to 
see the Temple of Segeste, all the columns of which, 
thirty-six in number, with its entablature and pedi- 
ments remain perfect ; it is of the Doric order, as are 
all the temples in Sicily, and its columns not fluted — 
its situation is fine, and commands an extensive view, 
with the Bay of Castellamare to the north. Only 
think of these fifteen miles taking us eight hours ! 
On the 6th we reached Trapani (fifteen miles farther) 
easily. Monte San Giuliano, just above Trapani, was 
the ancient Eryx — but not a vestige of the town or 
of the famous Temple of Venus remains ; it is a fine, 
bold, insulated mountain (though not equal to Monte 
Pellegrino, near Palermo), and has a village at the 
top with the remains of a very large Saracenic castle. 
At Trapani is a famous coral fishery — I bought some 
of the coral, but I don't think its colour is good. 
Marsala was our next day, eighteen miles, which the 



2o8 Girgenti, March 15///, 18 14. 

mules were eleven hours going ; there is nothing 
picturesque or fine in this promontory — all this 
western part of Sicily is low and flat, and cultivated 
with corn and vines, with few trees ; at Marsala there 
are some very extensive and extraordinary caves, 
parts of which are now used for making gun- 
powder ; they extend miles, opening at short intervals 
to the air ; they are all excavated by man, and indeed 
by some of the very early inhabitants of Sicily, they 
variously say by the Sicani, Siculi, and Phoenicians, 
possibly it might be the Saracens. On the 9th we 
went to Castel Vetrano, an ugly old town, but with a 
rich plain below it towards the south-east. This 
day's journey was twenty-four miles, and easily per- 
formed. On the loth we went twenty-four miles 
further to Sciacca ; Clive and I, however, went round 
to see the ruins of Selinuntum, eight miles from 
Castel Vetrano, close to the sea ; there are the ruins of 
six temples, which have been thrown down by a 
violent earthquake — not one column now stands 
entire, but the greater part are discoverable on the 
ground, at least of the larger temples ; many stones 
from the smaller ones have been carried away for 
building. The five smaller temples were all with 



Gir gently March 15//^, 1 8 14. 209 

fluted columns (the other, which was immense, and 
dedicated to Jupiter, had but very few fluted columns), 
some persons think therefore, from so odd a mixture, 
that it never was finished ; altogether these ruins are 
very interesting ; at present the spot (which then was 
so flourishing) is dreary and desolate — we saw no 
living creature, nor heard any sound but that of the 
sea. Sciacca is a fine old town, and its situation and 
surrounding country beautiful ; the ground very varied 
and full of almond, caroba, and olive trees, and the 
sea view very extensive. Near the town rises a rocky 
mountain called the San Calogero ; at its summit are 
some very extraordinary grottos, which are natural 
vapour baths ; they have been used medically ever 
since the time of Daedalus, who is said to have dis- 
covered them, and by whose name they are called ; 
a hot wind is continually rushing to the mouth of the 
grotto, which instantly covers any one approaching it 
with moisture all over ; we found the heat 92° ; the 
air is quite powerful, and the cause whence it may 
proceed invisible. Near these grottos rises a hot 
sulphureous spring, which by a natural channel under 
ground supplies some ancient baths an immense 
distance below ; the heat of this water is 1 30^° ; this 

E E 



2IO Girgenti, March \^th, 1814. 

is generally ascribed as the cause of the hot damp 
wind from the grottos, but Denon (who gives a very- 
just and long account of this phenomenon) observes 
that there is no smell whatever in this hot air, which 
there would be if it was sulphureous — the fact is true 
that there is no smell ! At Sciacca we were lodged 
in an Augustine convent, to the prior of which we had 
a letter ; we were very well treated by him. From 
Sciacca we were two days coming here, without any- 
thing remarkable but the River Platani, that I have 
before mentioned. Ox\ the nth instant we went 
twenty-four miles to the wretched village of Monte 
Allegro, which deserves anything but its name, and 
where we slept in filth and vermin ; and eighteen 
miles further brought us on the 12th to this place. 
Here we find the inn a tolerable one. The situation 
of Girgenti is magnificent, upon a high, steep, rocky 
hill, overlooking a highly cultivated and beautiful 
varied country, and an immense expanse of sea 
beyond ; the little rivers which wind along rocky 
valleys, the great unevenness of the country, with the 
numbers of almond and other trees, the richness of 
the corn at this time of year, with the two beautiful 
ruins of the temples of Juno and Concord, situated 



Girgenti, March i ^th, 1 8 1 4. 211 

on the most picturesque spots, and the mole, port, 
and shipping, four miles off, make this vast picture 
quite enchanting. Here the ruins are very different 
from Selinuntum, being surrounded by farm-houses 
and a busy multitude ; there are still to be seen ten 
temples, but eight of these are in a worse state than 
those at Selinuntum ; the Temple of Juno has its 
thirteen northern columns standing entire, with the 
entablature and several other columns variously 
damaged ; the situation of this ruin is uncommonly 
fine, and it is the most picturesque thing imaginable. 
The Temple of Concord is not far from it, and is still 
more entire than that of Segeste ; it has all its twenty- 
four columns and inner walls, with two staircases — 
in short, almost everything but the roof ; it gives one 
a perfect idea of a Grecian temple. All the temples 
of Agrigentum had flut^ columns ; the temple of 
Olympian Jupiter was perhaps the largest ever built ; 
it is supposed to have had seventeen columns in length 
and six in front — in all forty-two, and of gigantic 
dimensions ; but then the circumferences of the pillars 
were not of single stones, excepting the capitals, and 
in this respect it must have been very inferior to the 
smaller temples ; the small ones at Selinuntum had 



2 1 2 Gir gently March \^th, 1814. 

not only the circumferences of the columns, but the 
whole entire columns, of single stones. There is a 
tolerable old cathedral here, in which is a famous 
sarcophagus, representing on its four sides the story 
of Phaedra and Hippolitus ; there is also a beautiful 
picture by Guido of the Virgin and Child, and some 
magnificent pieces of plate, extremely old. 





Castro Giovanni, 
March i^k, 1814. 




SHALL send this letter to Palermo 
from hence, my dear mother, as I am 
ignorant when the next packet will sail 
for England, and I should be sorry my 
letter was not in time for it. I shall send it under 
cover to Mr. Gibbs, Herries's correspondent, as the 
safest means I can think of. The post to Palermo 
goes to-morrow morning. 

We left Girgenti on the i6th, and reached this 
place yesterday, sleeping at Canicatti and Calt- 
anissetta ; we had eighteen miles each of the three 
days ; the first twenty-five miles the country was 
beautiful, since then it has been less so, but not ugly. 



214 Castro Giovanni, March \<^th, 1814. 

At Canicatti, which is an ugly town of 15,000 inhabi- 
tants, we were at the inn, which is not a bad one. At 
Caltanissetta we were in a Benedictine convent, to a 
brother of which we had a letter from the Duke of 
San Giovanni, in Palermo ; it is a large, substantial 
old building, finely situated above the town (which 
itself covers a high hill) and commanding an ex- 
tensive view. We were here remarkably well treated, 
and found our friend a well-informed, liberal, happy, 
fat man — his name is Giuseppe Scotti Cassinesi ; all 
the Benedictines in Sicily are of noble families. 
Caltanissetta is a good town of 15,000 inhabitants 
also, but there is nothing remarkable in it, as we were 
told ; the afternoon we were there was so rainy we 
could not stir from the convent. We arrived here 
on another equally miserable afternoon, and our poor 
animals were so tired with the deep and execrable 
roads, we were ourselves and our servants such 
drowned rats, and many of our things in such a 
wretched state, that we determined to remain 
here to-day. This is the ancient Enna, but no re- 
mains of antiquity exist, except the ruins of an im- 
mense old castle, and a singular octagonal tower — it 
is called the Tower of Piso, and the castle Saracenic. 



Castro Giovanni, March \^th, 1814. 215 

I confess I believe them both to be Roman. The 
situation of this town is most singular — it is built 
upon the nearly level top of a rocky mountain, almost 
perpendicular on every side. It is so high that from 
the castle I could see plainly this morning the whole 
of iEtna, the sea near Catania to the east, and Licata 
to the S.S.W., the range of mountains running from 
Messina to Termini, and the following towns, viz., 
Calatascibetta, Traina, Leonforte, Asaro, San Filippi 
d'Argiro, Centorbi, Caropipi, Aidone, Mazzarino, 
Naro, Caltanissetta, and Sutera. If you will look at 
the map of Sicily, you will be astonished at the dis- 
tance of some of these places. We have had no 
accident, or anything worth mentioning, since I wrote 
at Girgenti. We are all quite well and happy, and 
in hopes that after the new moon on the 21st we shall 
have fine weather. To-morrow we go to Piazza, the 
next day to Caltagirone, and then by Chiaramonte, 
Modica, Spaccaforno, and Noto, to Syracuse ; there 
we shall stop about three days, and then proceed by 
Augusta to Catania. We hope to be able to see 
Mount iEtna, but we cannot know till we reach 
Catania ; some people say it is easy in April, others, 
impossible ; we shall afterwards go to Messina and 



2i6 Castro Giovanni, March ic)tky 1814. 

embark for Malta. The Sicilians appear to me a 
sorry set of people — the nobles are illiterate, and little 
to be respected ; in the middle orders I see no char- 
acter at all ; the lower orders are knavish, and more 
horridly filthy than anything you can imagine ; the 
country is fertility itself, and seems to me much better 
cultivated than Spain ; it is a beautiful island, good 
roads would make it quite a paradise. I never saw 
such ugly women as the Sicilians ; the men are not 
ill-looking, but the women have bad figures, ugly faces, 
and dress abominably, without an atom of grace. 
The poultry throughout the island is exquisite ; meat 
extremely scarce. I am so starved with cold I can 
hardly guide my pen ; there are no windows to the 
room, and the air (which at this height is very keen) 
comes in at every direction ; I will finish my letter 
after dinner. 

Nine o'clock. — I am almost as cold as I was before 
dinner, and I must draw my letter to a close. We 
are just returned from the house of the director of the 
studies of this town. He is a learned and a most 
good-natured man, and has a small library of very 
valuable books, such as your Dukes of Devonshire 
and Marquesses of Blandford would give thousands 



Castro Giovanniy March \^th, 1814. 217 

for. He has also a collection of medals, chiefly 
Sicilian, and a small one of mineralogy. 
Adieu, my dear parents, 
&c., &c. 
(No. 30.) 




F F 





Catania, 

April Zth, 1 8 14. 

HAVE this morning, my dearest mother, 
received three more letters from you, all 
kindness as usual, which I hasten to offer 
you a thousand thanks for, and in dutiful 
obedience to your commands I will write you our 
proceedings since Castro Giovanni, before I answer 
them. I shall not have time to say much to-day, as 
we are going to hear some music, and are only waiting 
for a Mr. McDonald, a Scotch Roman Catholic, 
chaplain to the regiment " De RoUe " here, who is to 
take us to the house. Clive and I have been employed 
this morning in going to see the Scoglj dei Ciclopi, 
some curious insulated rocks a few miles from hence ; 
they are entirely composed of lava, and one particularly 



Catania^ April Zth, iZid^, 219 

is an abrupt pyramid of basalt columns; the most 
general opinion concerning them is that they pro- 
ceeded from a small volcanic crater under the sea ; 
however, many people think that they are immediately 
from Mount Etna ; the former opinion seems to me 
the only probable one, for why otherwise should they 
be islands at some distance from the land, and with a 
great depth of sea immediately at their feet ? and 
still more, how else should the basalt columns have 
been formed, unless from the opposite forces of fire, 
water, and air? There is nothing very striking in 
their appearance, but I believe they are very great 
natural curiosities. 

We arrived here on the ist, and have been very 
much pleased with what we have seen at Catania ; the 
remains of the ancient city under ground (or more 
properly speaking under a stratum of lava), of the 
theatre, little theatre, amphitheatre, and public baths, 
are very curious and interesting, and several very 
valuable public and private museums and smaller 
collections we have seen have very much gratified us. 
The terra cotta vases in the museum of the Prince of 
Biscari are quite beautiful — all but two were dug up 
in Sicily ; the museum contains besides an incal- 



2 20 Catania, April Zth, 1814. 

culable number of lamps and various house utensils of 
terra cotta, female ornaments of brass, household 
gods, great numbers of perfect and imperfect statues, 
some of which are of exquisite workmanship, frag- 
ments of the columns, friezes, &c., of the ancient 
theatre and other public buildings (the former of which 
must have been one of the most sumptuous and mag- 
nificent among the ancients), sarcophagi, an extensive 
collection of the productions of Etna and Vesuvius, 
and numerous other less interesting subjects ; there is 
another general museum in the convent of Benedictine 
monks, but inferior to that of Biscari, though far from 
despicable. The Prince of Biscari has one of the finest 
collections of cameos in the world, but we have in 
vain endeavoured to get a sight of them ; the present 
man has just succeeded to his titles and estates, and 
promises little to resemble his patriotic, liberal grand- 
father, who was one of the greatest benefactors to 
Sicily. But were I to give you such detailed accounts 
of all we have seen I should fill quires of paper, and 
tire you quite as much as myself. I will be more 
concise ; it is all in my journal, where some time or 
other it may amuse you to dip a little. 

This is a most magnificent town, quite composed of 



Catania, April 8/-^, 1 8 1 4. 221 

fine palaces, churches, and convents; about one 
hundred and twenty years ago it was levelled to the 
ground by an earthquake, and most of the present 
town has been built within these sixty years ; many 
of the churches are beautiful, and their altars com- 
posed of the most beautiful agates you can imagine — 
all the productions of this country. A painted ceiling 
of a church of Benedictine nuns is one of the hand- 
somest things I ever saw. A priest who had some 
money to spare amused himself with building a church 
in exact imitation of Loretto, which encloses the sup- 
posed house of Joseph and Mary, miraculously 
brought from Nazareth ; here we have the church, 
house, &c., inch by inch, as in Loretto, and it is 
curious enough. All the environs of Catania being 
of lava, is a most extraordinary sight — that of the 
later eruptions remains black and bare, while the rest 
is cultivated, but even here, the black rocks that re- 
main not decomposed among the almonds, olives, &c., 
have a most singular appearance. I never could have 
formed an idea of the effect of such a volcano, without 
being an eye-witness to this strange country of the 
Cyclops ; the lava everywhere has the appearance of 
mountains of cinders, still seeming hot, and so sharp 



2 22 Catania, April Zth, 1814. 

that it cuts your shoes all to pieces — it has still all the 
shape which it had when a stream of fire, and gives 
me an idea of whirlpools of burning matter suddenly 
petrified and cooled, yet we know that it took an 
astonishing number of years to cool. We left Castro 
Giovanni on the 20th of March, and arrived at 
Modica, via Piazza, Caltagirone and Chiaramonte, on 
the 23rd ; we did not see anything on our way worth 
mentioning; the roads continued horridly bad, and 
the weather very rainy ; we were forced to ford deep 
rapid rivers, and go out of our way for bridges, with 
various other grievances, but without any accident. 
The roads about Modica are solid rocks, with deep 
holes worn in them, then filled with mud and water ; 
our poor animals suffered much — they lost their shoes, 
tore their hoofs, &c., and we were obliged to rest a 
day at Modica ; we were there in a private house, to 
which we had a letter, and were very civilly treated. 
It is a good town in a most singular and picturesque 
situation ; it occupies several narrow and almost per- 
pendicular rocky valleys watered by rivulets ; on the 
sides and in the bottoms of these valleys, industry has 
made grow the prickly pear, with a few fruit trees, 
and a little corn and garden stuff. At the top of the 



Catania, April '^th, 1814. 223 

town is an old ruined castle, whence through the 
valley you discover the sea — all this pleases the 
traveller's eye, but is very inconvenient for the poor 
inhabitant. On the 25th we went to Noto ; our 
servants and baggage went there straight, but Clive 
and I went out of our way to see some caves in a 
valley called Ispica — this valley is similar to that of 
Modica by nature, and a small brook runs along it, 
which passing by Spaccafomo soon after falls into the 
sea ; these caves are artificially but very rudely cut 
in the rocks on both sides of the valley, and there are 
one, two, three, and even more rows of them one 
above the other, according as the rock is more or less 
lofty ; they extend for a distance of at least nine 
miles, and must have contained a great number of in- 
habitants. One dwelling with three storeys of rooms, 
appears evidently to have been that of the prince 
or the chief of the people. The middle is the 
principal storey, and they ascended or descended to the 
other two through holes in the rock, there are no re- 
mains whatever of steps ; this dwelling is at this day 
inhabited by the principal shepherd of the country, 
and a few of the other caves by inferior ones ; they 
are usually called the Caves of the Siculi, but Denon, 



2 24 Catania, April ^th, 1 8 1 4. 

in his " Travels through Sicily," conceives them to 
have been made and first inhabited by the Sicani — a 
still more ancient people, and afterwards successively 
by divers other people, who in the numerous wars 
of this ever-fertile island, found themselves worsted 
and forced to seek shelter in hiding places ; his reason- 
ing is exceedingly ingenious and plausible. There 
are some large sepulchral chambers, which are evi- 
dently of a more modern construction, probably 
either Grecian or Carthaginian. Perhaps these 
caves are as interesting and as curious for an anti- 
quarian as anything to be met with anywhere ; this 
place seems to have remained down to the present 
day as wild as when first inhabited, and the few 
shepherds who now dwell in some of these 
singular caves are possibly just as ignorant, though 
less ferocious, than the Sicani or the Siculi. It rained 
torrents all the time we were examining these wild 
dwellings, which greatly annoyed us, and diminished 
the pleasure we should otherwise have enjoyed. The 
roads continued execrable ; my horse lost a shoe 
miles from a blacksmith's shop, and I was forced to 
creep along, sometimes mounted, sometimes on foot, 
to the nearest village, which was seven miles off ; this. 



Catania, April 8/^,1814. 225 

through roads such as I described when speaking of 
Modica, was no trifling distance. Having got the 
shoe put on, I had proceeded a short way, when off 
came another, and I was obliged to return to the 
village ; this also being put on, I exactly arrived at 
the same spot, when it was off once more. I now 
perceived that the rocky roads had so torn my horse's 
hoof, that this was the cause of what at first appeared 
witchcraft. A countrym.an who was accompanying 
me from the village to put me into the right road was 
so surprised and terrified, that he turned all colours, 
exclaiming, "O! Giesu Maria!" and crossed himself 
with great fervency. This amused me so much, that 
my patience, which was ebbing fast, soon returned to 
me, and we went once more to the village to repair 
our loss. The blacksmith shod my horse with great 
care, and as I soon after got into a good turf road, all 
went on well. I must, however, add that I am con- 
fident my guide took me for a necromancer, for though 
I had engaged him to go as far with me as a bridge 
six miles off, which he had undertaken with great 
glee, we had hardly got a mile from the village, ere 
he entreated me to let him return home, and seeing 
that the road became better and less intricate, I parted 

G G 



2 26 Catania, April %th, 1814. 

with the poor terrified man. Clive had continued his 
road quietly, and was quite astonished at the length 
of time I was in overtaking him. Although we left 
Modica at seven o'clock, and only went a distance of 
twenty-three miles, we did not reach Noto till some 
time after dark. Here we were lodged at the house 
of Prince Villadorata, to whom we had a letter from 
Dashwood, who knew him in Palermo. Clive's ser- 
vant, who had gone on first, just caught him as he was 
going to his country house two miles off; however, 
he immediately ordered roorns for us, sent his cook 
and steward from the country, gave us an excellent 
supper, capital wines from his own vineyards, comfort- 
able rooms and beds, and, in short, treated us like 
princes. I never saw so much comfort since I have 
been abroad, out of an English house ; his principal 
man-servant is an Englishman. The Prince rode over 
the next morning while we were seeing the town, &c., 
of Noto ; we had otherwise intended visiting him on 
our way to Syracuse, at his country house, to have 
thanked him. At Noto we saw one of the most ex- 
tensive and valuable collections of coins perhaps an}-- 
where to be met with — it belongs to an old Barone 
Astuto. Noto is a beautiful town, and quite modern. 



Catania, April Zthy 1814. 22/ 

having been destroyed by the same earthquake that 
destroyed Catania ; it has several magnificent palaces 
and convents. I happened to go into a church be- 
longing to a convent, where the nuns were singing to 
the organ — one of them had a beautiful voice, and 
sang several solo parts so divinely, that I could hardly 
quit the church some time after the voice had ceased, 
lest she should begin again, although I knew Clive 
would be waiting impatiently for me ; this was the 
first time that I was perfectly satisfied in a Roman 
Catholic church. I am sure I have not been so with 
any of the absurd ceremonies and tinsel magnificence 
I have seen here during this Passion Week. We only 
remained one night at Noto, the country about which 
is delightful, and by far the most desirable part of 
Sicily to live in, as far as I can judge from what I 
have seen ; the face of the country is very varied, 
the soil rich, plenty of springs and rivulets, corn, 
grass, almond, olive, and caroba trees, vineyards, and 
everything that is rich and cheerful. 

We reached Syracuse on the 26th. This is a most 
interesting spot ; we spent two days in viewing the 
antiquities; never was there a place that called to 
one's mind so distinctly the great events of history 



2 28 Catania, April Zth, 1 8 1 4. 

that there took place ; you can still trace the walls of 
the ancient town (which extended between twenty 
and thirty miles) nearly all round. The theatre and 
part of the amphitheatre were cut out of the solid 
rock, and therefore must last as long as the world. 
The immense stone quarries, called Lautomia, in one 
of which is that curious excavation called Dionysius's 
Ear, the use and purport of which has so long been a 
question among the doctors, and will in all probability 
never be solved ; the wonderful and magnificent sepul- 
chral chambers, where thousands and thousands of 
sepulchres are hollowed out of the solid rock on each 
side of long passages deep under ground ; the famous 
port where the fate of Athens was decided; all 
together, so many objects strike the eye at once, that 
it is impossible to see Syracuse and not be for the 
moment transported with enthusiastic feelings for 
those wonderful Greeks. I know no place where so 
many grand events of ancient history took place as 
at Syracuse, consequently, no place in itself so in- 
teresting. There have been several beautiful frag- 
ments of statues found, others nearly entire, and one 
or two quite so ; within these few years one of Venus 
was found, but unfortunately without the head and 



Catania, April \oth, 1814. 229 

the right arm ; the position is nearly similar to that 
of Medici, the proportions much larger ; and it is a 
question whether this is not superior in beauty; as 
for myself I think it far the most beautiful statue I 
ever beheld. Mr. McDonald has forgotten us, and I 
have therefore been enabled to write to you a long 
letter, but my neighbours in the adjoining rooms are 
snoring so soundly that I must now bid yon good 
night, my dearest mother, 

April loth. — I will now resume where I left ofif. 
The third day we were at Syracuse we took our guns 
and a boat, and crossing the port went up the River 
Anapus to the source of the famous fountain of Cyane ; 
this source is a large basin, clear as crystal, of above 
twenty feet deep ; the bottom appears of rock, per- 
forated with innumerable holes and covered over with 
moss ; you see all the fish playing in it as if only the 
purest crystal was between you and them ; it is 
singular that there is not the most minute bubble of 
water distinguishable, nor anything that denotes a 
spring, yet hence flows a very copious stream per- 
petually, equal in summer as in winter, and taking its 
course for four miles through marshy meadows, and 
then through cultivated lands for half a mile more, 



230 Catania, April lotk, 18 14. 

unites its clear, full stream with the muddy Anapus, 
a small river caused almost entirely by the melted 
snow and rains in the winter, and next to nothing in 
the summer ; half a mile further the united streams 
empty themselves into the port of Syracuse. During 
the greater part of the course of the Cyane it pre- 
serves the same exquisite clearness as at its source, 
and from the great depth of its bed the stream is 
equally imperceptible ; approaching the River Anapus, 
the bed becomes shallower, the banks steeper and 
closer to each other, the stream continues to be 
evident, and even strong, but gradually less limpid, 
though its superior clearness is strikingly remarkable 
till a little below its junction with the Anapus. In 
the middle of summer, and in the autumn, the Cyane 
is covered and quite concealed by weeds, notwith- 
standing its great depth. One of the most interesting 
things of this fountain is the plant of the papyrus, on 
which the ancients wrote instead of paper ; this grows 
here in great abundance, and was recovered by the 
late Cavaliere Landolina Nava, of Syracuse, the royal 
custos of the antiquities of the Val di Noto and the 
Val Demoni, who prepared it in small quantities ; his 
son, who has succeeded both to his office and merits, 



Catania, April lotk, 1814. 231 

continues to do the same. We received great civilities 
from him and he gave to each of us a little bit of his 
prepared papyrus, inscribed with his name ; it is a 
beautiful feathering plant and grows in the water 
without attaching its roots either to the bottom or 
sides, receiving nourishment solely from the water. 
Nothing can be more simple than the manner of pre- 
paring it ; it is only cutting the stalk (which is pithy) 
into thin slices, which you form into the shape and 
size you wish to write upon ; then, laying these sheets 
under heavy weights for about a fortnight, it unites by 
its own succulency, and is ready for writing upon. 
Having passed three interesting days at Syracuse, on 
the 30th we came to Augusta, a miserable town, with 
a beautiful natural harbour, made no use of; the 
surrounding country is rich and pretty. On the 31st 
we expected to reach Catania, only twenty-five miles, 
but on coming to the ferry of the River Giaretta or 
Simeto (anciently the Symaethus) we found it so much 
swelled with the rains and melted snow that the}'- 
assured us we could not pass, for that the stream 
would force the cable and carry us all into the sea ; 
we therefore got into a small uninhabited house close 
by, bought some fowls and eels for supper, and con- 



232 Catania^ April loth, 18 14. 

soled ourselves well enough, the night being fine ; the 
next morning we passed over prosperously, and 
arrived early at Catania. Since this month began 
the weather has been less rainy, but still unsettled 
and disagreeable. We are going to-morrow to 
Lentini, eighteen miles ofif, to shoot for a couple of 
days on some marshes and a lake of the Prince 
Butera's ; the shooting in the winter is quite ex- 
traordinary — we shall be late, but still expect 
good sport, for it never fails. John Cobb has 
had an attack similar to that he had at Alicante, 
but less severe — he is too unwell to go with us 
to-morrow, and I leave him under the care of the 
surgeon of De Rolle's regiment. When we return 
we shall make an attempt to see Etna, then 
proceed by Taormina to Messina ; all here tell us 
Etna is absolutely impracticable, but we shall go to 
Nicolosi, a small place on the mountain where the 
guides live, to ascertain the truth ; we are yet rather 
sanguine, there is however a most formidable nightcap 
of snow still upon it. We are going to-night to a 
dance with the Cavaliere Patemo, with whom we dine 
at half-past three ; we shall then see the fair Catanese, 
who are said to be pretty women. Heaven knows, in 



Catania, Ap7'il loth, 1814. 233 

all the rest of Sicily they are ugly enough ! Among 
the common people, they are absolute devils in filth 
and ugliness, almost without exception ; nor among 
the upper order of females at Palermo did I see any- 
thing strikingly pretty. Catania has the greatest 
fame ; it is singular that an island which so long and 
so often formed part of the Spanish dominions should 
bear so little resemblance to Spain ; it is true that in 
the vulgar language you catch some corrupt Spanish 
mixed with more corrupted Italian, but here the male 
part of the common people are as mean as the 
Spaniards are noble minded ; the females here are with- 
out beauty, figures, or grace, nor do you meet amongst 
the upper orders with that affability, or the quickness 
or liveliness, that you see in Spain ; the common 
people here of both sexes are quite despicable, dirty, 
mean, stupid, idle, ugly, unwilling, prejudiced — in 
short, everything that can make man most contemptible 
and revolting. Among the gentry I have seen many 
liberal, enlightened, patriotic, pleasing men, who have 
their country's good at heart, and are truly grateful to 
England for her steady assistance ; the nobility are 
very J very bad. I hear constantly from Dashwood, 
and Mrs. D. was so kind as to write me word of poor 

H H 



234 Catania, April lothy 1814. 

little Harty Pelham's death, which I thus knew before 
I got your letters ; hers was a most amiable one on 
the subject — I must consider it a fortunate event, and 
if you got all my letters from Mahon you will have 
seen that I wished it — but I am sorry poor Pelham 
feels it so much. Many thanks to dear Lucy for her 
letter. I cannot say how much I am annoyed to hear 
of poor Charles's ill-luck ; all you say of Orlando is 
most satisfactory ; you do not mention Henry — of 
course, you had nothing particular to tell me about 
him, but I like to see all their names in your letters. 
I should like to hear of Orlando's getting a staff 
appointment now that he has seen regimental service. 
I am sorry dear Mr. Chap has been so ill, and I don't 
like the account my uncle Gunning writes of himself. 
Thank you much for the books you are sending by 
A' Court. I shall write to Palermo that they may be 
forwarded to Malta. No, my dear mother, you will 
never see in me again that gay, thoughtless happi- 
ness I used to possess; it is now two years since I 
have lost that enviable feeling, and should the recol- 
lection of those events which deprived me of it 
gradually decrease and sink into oblivion, yet the 



Catania, April loth, 1814. 235 

mind habituated to reflect upon its losses, could 
only recover its former harmony by returning to the 
age in which it lost it, and I shall never again be 
two and twenty ; but, perhaps, it may yet please 
the Almighty to give me a considerable share of 
mortal happiness ; and that which He sees good to 
deprive me of may render me more fit for eternity 
and then be repaid tenfold. But, alas, I cannot 
flatter myself that since I have been less happy I 
have been more virtuous — far, very far, from it. 
This recalls to my mind that I had the misfortune 
to lose, the other day, the ring you gave me, on 
which was engraved in old orthography, " Let vertue 
be thy guide ; " it was a very cold, rainy day, we 
had to cross a river in a cockleshell-boat, while our 
animals swam after us ; for this, of course, it was 
necessary to take off the saddles and bridles ; we 
are always our own grooms, and I must have rubbed 
off the ring in putting on the saddle again, my 
hands being so numbed with the wet and cold, I 
did not feel it at the time. I had not, however, 
proceeded far before I missed it, but the banks of 
the river being grassy, I conceived it would be in 



236 Cataiiia, April loth, 18 14. 

vain to go back to look for it. And now adieu, my 
dearest mother. 

&c., &c. 



[Two letters unfortunately are here missing — they 
were from Messina, and one of them contained an 
account of Mount Etna. — L. E. B.] 






Malta, 

June ^th, 1 8 14. 
No. 33. 

My dearest Mother, 

E arrived here yesterday morning in the 
" Trieste" merchant brig, three days from 
Messina, and I found some letters from 
you at General Maitland's, but as the 
packet sails to-day, I have not time to answer them. 
You will be surprised and sorry to hear I am going to 
England from hence. Since I arrived at Messina I 
have not been so well, and therefore Clive has per- 
suaded me not to go on to Greece. Don't imagine 
now that I am very unwell ; I assure you I am not, 
and probably after passing a short time in England, I 
shall go out again through France and join Clive 
either at Vienna or some other place. I hope to get 
a passage in a man-of-war, as several line-of-battle 



238 Malta, Jtme ^th, 18 14. 

ships are coming here to proceed to England ; should 
I fail in this, a packet is now at Palermo on its way 
here, and will be sailing for England in about a fort- 
night. I conceive you are abroad before this time, 
and I have written to Mr. Heaton and Mr. Hamilton 
to stop all letters they may receive for me ; of course 
if I should go abroad again before your return, 1 shall 
meet you somewhere, ere I join Clive. We had such 
a crowd of passengers on board our wretched brig, 
that nothing could be more uncomfortable than our 
passage from Messina. I have not time to write more 
by this packet, but I will write fully by the next, 
should I still be here. God bless you, my dearest 
mother. 

&c., &c. 





Malta, 
June nth, 1814. 
No. 34. 

NOTHER packet came in on the 7th, 
my dearest mother, and brought me 
your letter No. 50, April 24th, with 
several enclosures. Out of the fifty 
letters you have written me, I have now received forty- 
four, which, taking all things into consideration, is 
fortunate. I find Spencer was at Gibraltar when the 
last packet touched there ; I conceive he had not got 
either your letter or the books, or he would surely 
have sent them to me by the packet. 






San Antonio, 
June \\thy 1 8 14, 

E are at General Maitland's palace in the 

country, where he passes the summer, 

and where we came yesterday to pass a 

few days. There is a beautiful garden, 

and it is infinitely cooler and altogether pleasanter 

than Valletta I will not enter 

much into politics, having little time, as the packet 
sails to-morrow ; I will only say that England 
is in no way bound to the King of Sicily 
touching the restoration of Naples, nor do I 
imagine such a measure desirable, as the Bourbons 
were abhorred by the Neapolitans — but I do think 
that the Powers who restore to a Corsican robber the 
title of emperor, which he himself resigned, who give 



San Antonio, June i^tky 1814. 241 

the son of his wife (the discarded mistress of a revolu- 
tionary tyrant) a petty sovereignty, and his butcher 
of a brother-in-law such a kingdom as Naples, de- 
serve to have their own crowns torn from their heads. 
Was it before I wrote my last that we heard Herbert 
was going from Sicily to join us at Zante ? I think 
not ; Clive might have a pleasanter companion, but 
he will be better than solitude, and I rejoice at it 
now that I cannot accompany him. There were no 
more carnival gaieties at Palermo than what I men- 
tioned, except a few absurd masks in the streets, and 
some very blackguard masquerades in the theatres. 
In answer to your other question respecting our mad 
shooting party from Palermo, the twelve other guns 
were twelve clowns, being nothing more than a por- 
tion of the thirty beaters ; the villa is a tolerable 
house in an ugly garden, in a still uglier country, 
and the breakfast consisted of bread and butter, tea, 
coffee, and tough cold fowls ; we walked home eight 
miles, because it was less fatiguing than riding rough 
starved mules over bad roads and stony mountains 
for nine or ten miles to the villa, whence we should 
have had nine more to go in a carriage. We have 
some very unpleasant accounts of the conduct of 

I I 



242 San Antonio y June \\th, 1814. 

Ferdinand the Seventh, on his arrival at Valencia ; 
if his proclamation as we have it be true, he is a fool 
or a madman — if the Spaniards yield to him, they are 
not what I took them for ; and if they resist, a most 
bloody revolution must ensue ; the king will have the 
whole army, the whole Church (perhaps the most 
wealthy and numerous of any nation), and the greater 
part of the grandees, with him ; against such antago- 
nists, rivers of patriotic blood must flow ere they can 
establish their independence. Clive is still here, but 
will go to Zante by the next packet. The ** Eliza- 
beth " and the ** Tremendous," line-of-battle ships, are 
expected here from the Adriatic to go to England, 
and General Maitland says he is certain Captain 
Gower of the " Elizabeth " will give me a passage ; 
but there is a report that she is to be the flag-ship at 
Gibraltar, and that Captain Gower will give her up 
there. The " Weazle " sloop. Captain Noel, was 
going home from hence, and Noel offered me a pas- 
sage — but he has since been told he is to return to 
the Adriatic. I do not fancy so long a passage in a 
packet, which is a very small brig, with bad accommo- 
dations. The " Havannah " frigate is here waiting 
for Hamilton, who has lately been appointed to her ; if 



San Anto7iio, Jtme i^fky 1814. 243 

he comes before I have an opportunity, he will certainly 
give me a lift to Gibraltar on his way to America, that 
would be very pleasant, and it would be very unlucky 
if I could not get a passage home among the nume- 
rous ships that will go from thence. General Mait- 
land is uncommonly civil to us ; he has a rough sin- 
cerity of manner which displeases many here, and he 
does not promote gaiety enough for them ; but he is 
very entertaining in his own house, and his household 
are very good fellows ; his aides-de-camp are a son of 
Lord Lauderdale, and a nephew of Sir David Baird ; 
and his private secretary, a Mr. Plaskett. This place 
would suit you particularly ; it is an irregular, large 
house, between three and four miles from Valletta, 
with a large, beautiful garden with terraces, and broad, 
straight walks full of fruit and flowers. We have a 
burning sun and a cloudless sky, with the finest even- 
ings possible. The distance this place is from the 
town makes it as retired as you please, and there are 
rooms with every aspect. We breakfast at half-past 
seven, dine at three, and walk all the evenings in the 
garden. The Governor's palace in Valletta is magnifi- 
cent ; he lives there in the winter, and has assemblies 
every ten days. They tell us the Maltese society is 



244 -^^^^ Antonio, Jtme 14//^, 18 14. 

bad, but we have as yet seen nothing of it. Next 
Monday the General means to begin weekly parties, 
from half-past five till half-past eight in the evening, 
with dancing and refreshments in the garden ; it will 
be an extremely pretty scene, but we are not to 
expect any beauty, as they say the Maltese women 
are remarkably plain. I believe we shall go back to 
Valletta the day after to-morrow ; we have been here 
since last Monday, and I daresay we shall return 
here to stay again. The cultivation of Malta is won- 
derful, considering the rocky, barren spot it is by 
nature ; almost all the soil is brought from Sicily, yet 
almost every foot of the island is cultivated. The 
beauty of it this year is passed, as the clover and corn 
are got in ; but it still looks tolerably green from the 
quantity of figs, with some caroba trees, orange 
gardens, olives, and other fruit-trees. Valletta is the 
handsomest and best built town I ever saw, and the 
villages throughout the island are better built than 
most towns. The divisions of all the fields are stone 
walls which have an ugly appearance, and the whole 
island is low and flat. The population is about 
120,000; 50,000 of which are in Valletta and its 
suburbs. The fortifications of these are immense; but 



San Antonio, June 14M, 18 14. 245 

from their extent they require a garrison of 50,000 
men, a number that could never be provisioned. The 
harbours are beautiful, and there is a very pretty little 
dockyard ; it is altogether a most extraordinary 
place, and well worth seeing. St. John's Church in 
Valletta is very handsome, and hung with beautiful 
tapestry ; the floor is entirely composed of the differ- 
ent knights' tombstones, with their arms in mosaic, 
and they form the most singular and beautiful pave- 
ment I ever saw. We went yesterday to see St. 
Paul's Cave, in Citta Vecchia, and some catacombs, 
which are very inferior to those at Syracuse. I 
believe we shall go this evening to St. Paul's Bay, 
where he was shipwrecked. A cousin of Wolryche 
is the commanding engineer here, and his sister 
Mary is with them ; Mrs. W. is a clever woman, and 
they are altogether the pleasantest people here. 
God bless you, dear mother. 






London, 
August 26tkf 1 8 14. 

My Dearest Mother, 

SAT down to write to you yesterday, 
and I accomplished a sheet of paper, but 
I was so dissatisfied with it that I have 
destroyed it ; I hope I shall be able to 
do rather better to-day. I reached London the day 
before yesterday, from Deal, where I landed the pre- 
ceding day. I will hasten to tell you that my health 
is perfectly recovered, and that you need not have 
an anxious thought about me. Would to God my 
mind were as much at ease as my body ! But I will 
endeavour to confine myself as much as possible to 
matters of fact. I left Malta on the 21st of June 
with my friend Hamilton, who has got the *' Havannah" 
(36 guns). We went to Mahon, where they put us 



London, August 26th, 18 14. 247 

in forty days' quarantine. We remained but one day 
there and were ordered to Gibraltar, where we arrived 
on the loth of July. There they put us in forty days* 
quarantine, but they were to reckon from the day we 
left Malta. This would have given us pratique on the 
30th of July, but the " Havannah" was ordered to pro- 
ceed to America, for which she sailed on the 19th. For- 
tunately the " Haughty" gun brig, Lieutenant Harvey, 
had lately arrived from Malta, from whence he had 
sailed the day after us. Mr. Harvey is well known to 
Hamilton, and came to dine with him. He kindly 
offered me a passage to England, and I removed from 
the " Havannah" to the " Haughty." We sailed from 
Gibraltar on the 22nd of July, with a small convoy ; 
we had contrary winds for three weeks, and anchored 
in the Downs on the 20th instant. We got pratique 
on the 23rd, and I arrived here the following day. 
No less than five of us slept in the little gun brig's 
cabin. I got a standing bed-place, so that I had the 
pleasure of the whole motion. However, I am an 
excellent sailor, and I had not a moment's sickness. 

I found several letters from you I have 

seen nobody but Mr. Chap, who is very ill with the 
lumbago, and is so altered since I saw him that his 



248 Londojty Augttst 26th, 18 14. 

looks shocked me. I hope you will not think of 
coming home on my account ; perhaps I may go 
abroad again myself in a few months. Congratulate 
Charles for me on his promotion. T am glad Henry 
will see a little of the continent. Poor Clive has gone 
into Greece alone. How it pained me to leave him. 
There was a possibility of Herbert's joining him at 
Zante, but there is a report here that the Prince of 
Butera died suddenly, and that he was on the point of 
marrying the princess.^ 

5 o'clock. — Orlando is just arrived, and it has done 
me much good to see him. This is foreign post day, 
and the bell is going, I cannot, therefore, add a word 
more, but will write fully soon. 

God bless you, my dear parents, &c., &c., &c. 

• They were married 17th August, 1814. 



CHISWICK PRESS : — PRINTED BY WHITTINGHAM AND WILKINS, 
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE. 



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